Q9

[magnusgan]

I got this one right but I find these generically worded answers time consuming to unpack. I probably spent a good 3 minutes fully checking out each of the answers, got it down to (A) and (E) and finally picked correct answer (A).

Is there a more efficient way to do this?

[ohthatpatrick]

The generic wording is definitely tough on a lot of these. It sometimes helps if you already think about RC passages in a generic sense of "What is the author's purpose?"

Also, the better you are at concocting a Passage Map after you read, the more you'll already have a template for this answer in mind.

As I was just reading this passage for the first time, I was saying to myself, "This is a very dry, informative, linear passage. No scale to be found here. The author is essentially just telling a story."

Once I'm checking out the answers, I'm essentially reading for the sketchiest part of any answer choice. i.e. "Which word/phrase do I feel sketchiest about supporting?"

(A) Super generic and boring. No red flags.

(B) "supporting and refuting" an assertion? That sounds like a Scale, which this passage didn't have. Red flag.

(C) A "variety of possible ways to overcome the obstacle" doesn't seem right. This is a historical story. There was an obstacle and the author tells us how people overcame the obstacle. Red flag.

(D) "tentative resolution is recommended"? There was no recommendation. Red flag.

(E) "Predicted"? There was no prediction. Red flag.

One little 'trick', if you can call it that, is that the answer choices to this type of question always have a series of ingredients. I find that most of them break with the last or middle ingredient. So I tend to be forgiving with the first generic ingredient, because most of those are usable in some sense, but then I tighten my filter as I continue reading the next two ingredients.

The other thing to look back on in the passage are the beginnings of paragraphs.

P2 starts with "although the idea was a daring one", reminding us of the resistance to the phenomenon being described.

P3 starts with "These developments also led to ...", reinforcing that the author is enumerating the ramifications of the phenomenon being described.

P4 starts with "The most important result of these ...", alerting us to the fact that the author is ending the passage by stressing a ramification of the phenomenon being described.

This type of question is essentially a cousin of "Match the Reasoning" in LR; in both cases, we need to practice the skill of turning something specific into something abstract. It's tough, for sure, but it's worth practicing, since most of the art of reading case briefs in law school will be extracting the abstract 'fact pattern' from the specific story of the case.

Hope this helps.

[magnusgan]

Thanks, so there's just no easy way out other than to brute force and carefully evaluate every answer choice.