PrepTest 145, Section 1, Question 15
Passage A During the 1990s, the study of(489 more words not shown)
Passage A(268 more words not shown)
Passage B(229 more words not shown)
The author of passage A(23 more words not shown)
- AIt indicates that(12 more words not shown)
- BIt focuses on(17 more words not shown)
- CIt fails to(17 more words not shown)
- DIt demonstrates that(21 more words not shown)
- EIt succeeds in(13 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
What would A's author say is missing from B? The individual women. B tells us what Augustus wanted wives and mothers to represent, but not how particular women actually engaged with that world.
What we’re looking for
That criticism doesn't make B useless. A recognizes that gender analysis explains larger structures. We're looking for the limitation that follows from A's own concern, not any criticism we could invent of Roman history.
Working the answers
- A
Neither account compares ancient gender conceptions with our modern ones. We may have our own views about how familiar these roles sound, but those views cannot supply the missing comparison.
- B
B does concentrate on femininity. But A's stated concern is the loss of individual women's experiences, not that every analysis must give masculinity equal attention. Mentioning masculinity as an example of research doesn't establish this criticism.
- CCorrect
B explains laws, social expectations, political rhetoric, and art. It gives no substantive account of how a particular woman lived under Augustus. That is precisely the omission A identifies when it says gender analysis can overlook how individual women “engaged their worlds.”
- D
We have no comparison with the role of domesticity in recent politics. B explains its importance in ancient Rome without ranking that importance against another era.
- E
Reporting Augustus's marital laws isn't the same as discovering previously unknown portions of them. Nothing says historians were unaware of those provisions.
More Author's Opinion questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Author's Opinion questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.