I don't think you need to "know" that Christianity is the most common religion in the US and Canada.
You can still pick (C) just because it is the
most supported option available to us, and from a test-taking / test-writing point of view, it is the closest textual match for the keywords given to us in the question stem.
The problem with (A) being supported by line 37-40 (in addition to the leap in strength between "cultural screens of silence and secretiveness" and "discouraging citizens from seeking out their heritage") is that this line reference is about what happens to Naomi within the novel.
This question is about what the AUTHOR, Kogawa, thinks about that society. We need Kogawa more directly involved in the line reference we use to support our answer.
The logic of line 41-44 gives some support that Christianity is related to the professed ethics of the majority culture. It probably wouldn't be the "subtle critique" if the author weren't using the majority culture's own symbols against itself.
In terms of the common sense question ... it gets a bad rap on LSAT. Common sense is fine ... it's indispensable on Strengthen, Weaken, Resolve/Explain, etc.
People think that they're not allowed to use common sense because sometimes questions make you state assumptions that are pretty common sensical. That doesn't mean they're not assumptions.
For example:
Should we feed poison to children? Of course not. That's like asking if we should punch babies in the face!
Assumption:
We should not punch babies in the face.
This IS a necessary assumption.
On a Strengthen/Weaken question, the test is fine with you making that common sense assumption. However, it's still true that it IS an assumption.
If I negated it and said "we SHOULD punch babies in the face", the original argument falls to pieces.
So don't think that just because the test sometimes asks us to articulate an assumption that is common sense that it doesn't want us to use common sense.
Assumptions are necessarily UNTRUE ideas, they're just unstated ones.
If I say:
Paul applied to Harvard. Thus, Paul applied to a highly ranked school.
That conclusion is correct, but that argument isn't logically valid.
Two different things.
We are assuming that "Harvard is a highly ranked school".
In order to make the argument logically valid, I have to add that assumption.
So use common sense throughout, but understand that the more you're justifying your answer using the words on the page, the safer you are.
