LSAT PrepTest 150 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 19

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Passage A.

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Borges' observation about literature · Readers of detective novels might every narrative like a detective story

They read with suspicion. The author believes Borges has tapped into a general insight about literature.

Borges' perspective · Participation of reader is essential to literature

Genres are united by how people read those texts. (Detective novels are detective novels because people read them with certain conventions, such as reading with suspicion, looking for clues, etc.)

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Problem with one definition of genre · "Borderline cases" show that genre can't be defined by similar themes in the books

Science fiction in particular has a lot of borderline cases (books that don't fit the thematic similarities of sci-fi well).

Better definition of genre · Based on different reading protocols (ways of reading)

Texts most central to a genre are those written for the purpose of using a particular reading protocol. (So, a detective novel is a detective novel because it was written to take advantage of the norms of reading detective novels.)

Passage Style

19.

Which one of the following ██ ██ ███████████ ██ █ █████████ ██████████ ███████ █ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ██

Question Type

Application

A principle underlying Passage B is that the reading protocol a work exploits is what defines the genre. This is related to Borges’s view in that Borges also believes that something about the way a reader reads a work is part of what defines the work’s genre. In fact, we might say that Passage B would call the way a reader reads a text a reading protocol. It’s difficult to identify a more specific anticipation before going to the answers.

A story in ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██████████ ██ ███████

Not supported, because we have no reason to think Passage B involves a principle about whether detective fiction can include supernatural characters.

Stories in the █████ ██ █████████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ████████

Not supported, because we have no reason to think Passage B involves a principle about the relationship between detective fiction and the social anxieties of the time in which they it was written.

Stories in the █████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██████████ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████

This is an application of a principle underlying Passage B, because Passage B identifies the “ways of reading” and “responding to sentences” as part of a reading protocol. A work designed to exploit detective fiction’s reading protocol is what defines a work as detective fiction. So stories in the detective fiction genre are written to exploit detective fiction’s reading protocol (which involves encouraging suspicion about things in the story).

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A story in ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ █ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████

Too extreme. We have no reason to think that detective fiction “must” involve a solution discovered by the reader along with the protagonist. Perhaps detective fiction encourages readers to think about a solution, but that doesn’t imply it must involve a solution that is discovered by the reader.

The reading protocols ██████████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ █ ████ ███████ ████████ ██████

Not supported, because we have no reason to think that Passage B uses a principle that suggests detective fiction isn’t a well defined literary genre. It might be a well defined literary genre, if the reading protocols that detective fiction is designed to exploit are well defined.

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PrepTest 150 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 19

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