Q8

[bghose]

General: Line 15 says that Stilgoe claimed "romantic-era distrust" be be present in the 1830s, and it vanished in the decades after 1880.

Is it supposed to mean that it was present from the 1830s right up to 1880 (after which Stilgoe believed that it vanished)?

My analysis of the answer choices is as follows:

A) Uses "technological innovation" which is broader than just the railroad that Stilgoe is concerned with. Eliminated.

B) Not able to locate support for "commonly" held belief. The author calls it the reaction of a minority of intellectuals, but I found Stilgoe's opinion hard to judge. Eliminated. (This is the Correct answer, as found in the answer key later).

C) Wrong time period (1880+). Eliminated.

D) Thought that it had the right elements in 1830s and minority, so chose to keep it.

E) Again wrong time period. Eliminated.

Based on the above, chose D) as the answer, which is NOT correct.

Can someone explain why B) is the correct answer, and from which lines in the passage the answer is being derived?

[bghose]

On second thoughts:

D) seems to have similar scope issues as A) in that social and economic developments during the 1830s is way broader than just the discussion about the railroad.

C) and E) both had the wrong time period problem, so A), C), D), E) have been Eliminated. Which leaves B) as the last answer standing by process of elimination, although the "commonly held attitude" part still bothers me.

Can someone clear this up for me?

[ohthatpatrick]

Wow, you handled the wrong answers really well for a question you were confused about. Goes to show that we can sometimes (if not often) steal a correct answer just by good analysis of things in other answers that worry us even more.

I think where you're really getting tangled in the choice between (B) and (D) is that (B) expresses Stilgoe's view, while (D) is closer to the author's view.

Stilgoe thinks that in 1830, people didn't like the railroad. He labels this phenomenon as "romantic-era distrust". In the 2nd paragraph, though, this author says, "No, no, no, Stilgoe. It's not like society as a whole was against the railroad - it was just a small collection of intellectuals that had highly publicized criticisms of the railroad. They weren't speaking for the masses; they were actually trying to push back against the fact that the masses seemed to be uncritically accepting the railroad."

Lines 18-21 begin this whole discussion. The author draws a distinction between Stilgoe's "romantic-era disgust" and, instead, the minority of writers/artists/intellectuals who actually distrusted the railroad.

LSAT likes to test distinctions, and we often have to pick an answer about A based on what we were told about ~A (or vice versa).

Since "romantic-era disgust" is supposed to be different from a minority of disgusted people, we can infer that "romantic-era disgust" refers to a majority of disgusted people.

Lines 27-32 make the point even more explicitly. The author says Stilgoe is wrong to say that the disgust exhibited by these writers was "typical of the period". That's how you'd match up with the language of (B).

Hope this helps.

[bghose]

Thanks for such a detailed response, Patrick.

Cannot resist asking one last q about this one: when Stilgoe mentioned that distrust "was present" during the 1830s, would it be correct to infer that the distrust was present "in full force", or in other words that it was "commonly-held"?

I fully agree with your analysis that the lines 27-32 provide additional support for the correct answer to be B).

Thanks!

[ohthatpatrick]

We can't infer that a viewpoint was commonly held, in full force, etc. just from learning that the viewpoint was "present during the 1830s".

I could say that racist views are still present in America, but I certainly hope that racist views aren't commonly held or in full force in present day America.

I think, though, that from the term "romantic-era distrust", we're allowed to infer that this means "distrust" was felt by more than just a few people. It would be hard to characterize an entire era as having a certain feeling if that feeling weren't commonly held.

Ultimately though, as I was saying before, we really get our sense of Stilgoe's ideas by reading the 2nd paragraph. Seeing that the author draws a contrast with Stilgoe by saying "No, Stilgoe, it was just a minority ." That gives us the means to infer Stilgoe thinks something was commonly held. And then lines 28-29 more explicitly tells us that Stilgoe held this attitude was "typical of the period".

[T.J.]

I solved this question pretty quick in the following way.

In line 7, it mentions the public attitudes, and goes on to say that historians differ on this front. Then the author brings up Stilgoe on line 12, after which it reads "Stilgoe has addressed [[[[[this issue]]]]]". Here, the issue refers to public attitudes toward the railroad. No inferences are needed in solving this question. If anything, it tests referential phrasing.

Often times, when I am confused with one particular question, others might have far more superior approaches, which always have been such a delight for me.

Raise your hand if you agree~