PrepTest 127, Section 1, Question 21
Scientist: Isaac Newton's Principia, the seventeenth-century work that(77 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(31 more words not shown)
- AIt is raised(20 more words not shown)
- BIt is a(27 more words not shown)
- CIt is cited(19 more words not shown)
- DIt is a(18 more words not shown)
- EIt serves to(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A work that only a handful of people initially understood eventually became part of widespread knowledge. That is easy to picture with Newton: someone might know the basic idea of inertia from school without being able to work through the mathematics in Principia. Understanding can spread without everyone becoming a physicist.
The scientist uses that history to say that the barrier between scientific specialists and the public can be crossed. Then the argument turns to recent research. Could it spread in the same way? Perhaps, although we might ask whether the new work differs in importance or complexity. Not every discovery has to become as influential as Newton's. Notice, though, that the conclusion says it may become part of our shared knowledge, not that every result definitely will.
The question singles out a clause inside that final sentence: recent research often uses language that seems esoteric. “Esoteric” means understood by a limited, specialized group. Think of detailed LSAT terminology: familiar to people studying the test, but unfamiliar to many others.
What we’re looking for
That clause is not the conclusion merely because it sits in the final sentence. The conclusion is the surrounding claim that recent research may become part of everyone's intellectual heritage. The selected clause adds context about the research being discussed. Let's see which answer explains what that context contributes.
Working the answers
- A
The scientist does not call the claim about esoteric language into doubt. The argument accepts that present readers often find the language inaccessible and still suggests that understanding may eventually spread. A wrongly says the truth of the selected claim is challenged.
- B
The similarity concerns initial accessibility, not the content of the research results. Modern findings could differ fundamentally from Newton's claims while being similarly hard for nonspecialists to understand at first. The passage does not say the results differ only superficially.
- C
The fact that current readers struggle with the language does not itself show that the barrier can be overcome. The Newton example supplies that evidence. The selected claim describes a present difficulty; C mistakes it for another example of successful communication.
- DCorrect
The claim makes the earlier example relevant to the new conclusion. Newton's work initially reached only a handful of people; recent work also initially seems inaccessible to most readers. That shared starting point gives us a reason to consider whether modern research could follow the same path toward wider understanding. The clause connects the historical case with the subject of the final conclusion.
- E
The selected statement helps establish a similarity: both Newton's work and much recent research initially seem inaccessible. It does not cast doubt on that similarity. Whether other differences weaken the analogy is a separate question from what this clause is doing.
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