Q20

[inesa909]

I'm not sure why D is the correct answer. We are supposed to choose something that undermines McLoughlin's account, which I thought E would satisfy since it would have meant that there was more tension in the tribe since the reforms didn't benefit everyone. I had a lot of trouble choosing an answer for this one partly because of the question stem and I really didn't see an answer that made much sense. The correct answer seems iffy too. I thought, just because the revivals started at an earlier time, that would not necessarily mean that all of the revivals were of the same intensity. For example, maybe they had revivals in the 18th century, but the revivals in the post-missionary period were more fervent?

[rinagoldfield]

This inference question asks the reader to identify something that would contradict McLoughlin’s interpretation of the Cherokee reforms that occurred in the 1820s.

(D) is correct.
McLoughlin argues that the revivals of Cherokee religious beliefs and practices arose in reaction to the Christian missionaries and the Cherokee elite who pandered to them (lines 26-31). (D)’s suggestion that the revivals began before the arrival of the missionaries directly contradicts this argument. How could the Cherokee react to missionaries who hadn’t arrived yet?

I thought, just because the revivals started at an earlier time, that would not necessarily mean that all of the revivals were of the same intensity. For example, maybe they had revivals in the 18th century, but the revivals in the post-missionary period were more fervent?

This interpretation requires a lot information that isn’t in the text. The passage doesn’t imply that traditionalist Cherokee nurtured preexisting religious revivals, and levels of intensity are never mentioned. Remember, the LSAT demands baby-step sized inferences, not imaginative leaps. Try to hew as closely as possible to the text itself.

(E) is out of scope. McLoughlin never addresses whether or nor the Cherokee elite cared to benefit all Cherokee.

We are supposed to choose something that undermines McLoughlin's account, which I thought E would satisfy since it would have meant that there was more tension in the tribe since the reforms didn't benefit everyone.

The views of the Cherokee elite are never discussed in the passage, so to conclude that these views created tensions within the tribe is a leap. That said, this interpretation actually doesn’t undermine McLoughlin’s argument. His account acknowledges rifts within the tribe, describing how the missionaries"˜ preference for the converted part-Cherokee elite created "great intratribal tensions" (lines 22-26).

(A) is unsupported. McLoughlin asserts that most members of the Cherokee council supported the reforms, including the traditionalist Cherokee (line 45). The number of seats held by traditionalists is irrelevant.

(B) is out of scope. US government? Native American tribes? This passage talks about Christian missionaries and the Cherokee nation specifically.

(C) supports rather than undermines McLoughlin’s interpretation.