Q22

[mrudula_2005]

Can you help me pinpoint exactly how (A) weakens the author's position? I get that it sort of counters lines 23-27 but it just doesn't seem to be directly jabbing at the author's position or anything - I would have been much more confident in picking (A) if it said that Brancusi experimented with the use of "PURELY reflective" material for the creation of positive-light sculptures or something like that.

I get how (A) weakens this: "Noguchi...pondered the fact that sculptors through the ages had relied exclusively upon negative light" by saying that Brancusi experimented with the creation of positive light sculptures - but (A) says that Brancusi only experimented...not that he actually ended up using it...

i'm just having a hard time articulating why I chose this - it was just a general inclination and POE...

thanks so much!

[noah]

Good question. There's a broader issue here which is that the author isn't simply talking about this sculpture. The author also paints a broader picture of Noguchi. Take a look at the first paragraph again - the author argues that Noguchi was extremely original. (A) suggests he might not have been with regard to the main example.

Does that make you feel better about (A)? I agree, POE is not a satisfying route to the answer! But, in the heat of the LSAT, it's obviously what we often rely upon.

As for the wrong answers:

(B) is tempting, but we don't know if he produced only a "few" of the new sculptures.

(C) is unsupported.

(D) is out of scope--we never hear which pieces of art were abstract.

(E) is out of scope. We never hear about Noguchi's idea of himself.

[vik]

What does POE mean?

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

POE = process of elimination

[interestedintacos]

if it said that Brancusi experimented with the use of "PURELY reflective" material for the creation of positive-light sculptures or something like that.

You bought into a distortion. There's a difference between a sculpture that's purely reflective (which is the piece of text you're referring to--where it says Noguchi was after this) and purely reflective material (which as far as I can see is never mentioned at all). The degree of reflectiveness in the material is irrelevant. The main issue is positive vs. negative light, which this answer choice attacks perfectly.

[esultana]

Hi,

I chose A in my first go around, but I would like to know why answer choice E is a no go.

Is it because the passage's main idea is more about how Noguchi's purely reflective "positive-light" sculptures came about and not about how Noguchi thinks like a scientist? Therefore would thinking about the passage's main idea be most useful in these types of questions? Thanks.

[nthakka]

I got this one wrong and found this question incredibly nerve racking under timed conditions. But after reviewing..

Line 56 "Even after this stunning discovery"

Therefore, (A) weakens because it introduces the idea that if Brancusi experimented with the material first, it wasn't Noguchi's "stunning" discovery.

I originally chose (D), but it's unclear now his this impacts his position. If anything it is consistent in that "he began the next phase of his evolution".

[hyewonkim89]

I'm still a bit confused about (A).

When I first saw (A), I thought maybe he has been experimenting during those years but his experimentation wasn't successful until he met Fuller in 1929.

I just don't see how this weakens the passage.

Please help!

[aescano209]

Hey I know this is kind of an old thread, but I just wanted to try to respond to a couple poster's previous responses for future readers.

To Esultana's question, before we understand why E is wrong we have to really understand where the author stands in this passage. The author's attitude toward Noguchi is pretty postive. He finds that Noguchi's use of the reflective surfaces to be unique, in that he thinks it is original or impressive in a sense. If we were to state E in that Noguchi didn't think of himself as either a scientist nor having scientific training, does this really weaken this argument. Let's think about that. Would Noguchi's thoughts of himself saying "Man... I'm really not a scientist nor do I have the training." weaken the author's stance on how original Noguchi is? No, Noguchi can just be really humble, but it still doesn't cast doubt on the original main idea of the author, that being that Noguchi is original. Essentially, the author's conclusion still stands. You want to try to think of the strengthen/weaken questions as that from LR. It really helps to break down the core such as, what is the author's main conclusion, or what is the author's for this stance.

To hyewonkim89, remember as previously stated the author's praise of Noguchi is the idea that his new sculpture is original. Notice that in the 2nd paragraph that it never really tells of Brancusi using the chrome-steel as a reflective surface. If at all, when I read through the passage I was under the assumption that Brancusi hadn't used the material at all, but again this is an assumption I made which isn't always warranted on the LSAT. But this answer choice says that Brancusi actually used some type of material with the use of postive light sculptures. In paragraph two it shows that no one really ever used that material and really that most people used the negative light technique. Remember, Noguchi was polishing the materials used by Broncusi alluding to the idea that he actually didn't use reflective technique. If in fact, as answer choice A chooses to point out, that Brancusi actually used this technique then maybe Noguchi didn't actually come up with it originally. This would weaken the author's main point/purpose of the passage, which is that Noguchi is original for his new style/technique. That, to my opinion, is what made A stand out.

For these questions, I always like to go through the answer choices and put a tilda next to the answer choices that seem plausible and those that are definitely unsupported by the passage. After that, I always make sure to restate the argument in my head and attack the details of the answer choices that are left, just as I would for LR which helps. Also, another thing to keep in mind is be careful with reading comprehension. I have noticed time after time that answer choices that are appealing and somewhat sound like they are in the passage are actually distortions of things said in the passage. For myself I always go back where the words or phrases are used and double check for what the answer choice is stating. If it has distorted the use of the words/phrases and it is not inferable, I eliminate. Hope this helps someone in the future.

[kunaljaypatel]

Old thread, but it's a tough passage. I thought I'd give my 2 cents on this.

Question 20 is a POV question that functions as a LR weaken question.

I chose A because the author's position was that Noguchi intuitively asked and responded to deeply original questions. (Lines 1-3) And the POV is reiterated in the last paragraph, lines 56-61.

If Brancusi was already experimenting on highly reflective materials, and the author's position was that Nugochi was the super deep intellectuall type that ASKED AND RESPONDED to original questions, then the argument illustrated in the position is weakened.

It's done so because if Brancusi was already working with reflective materials and nugochi wanted to created a purely reflective sculpture(28-30) then nugochi isn't answering or formulating "deeply original questions", he's just taking Brancusi's work on highly reflective materials a step further.

The rest of these answers have nothing to do with the author's position which is a characterization of Nugochi as this super deep original intellectual-type.

It's Super important to figure out the POV, so you can frame your answers. What made this passage tough is that almost all the rest of the questions are specific line reference questions that are nitty-gritty details (20,21) that don't have much to do with the big picture. You essentially get a bunch of line reference questions in a row, and you forget what the author's overall argument is.

16 is a line reference "what does this mean" question.
17 is a line reference question.
18 is a POV question.
19 is a line reference parallel analogy
20 is a line reference must be true type.
21 is also a line reference must be true type.