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Course: LSAT > Unit 1
Lesson 10: Reading Comprehension - Worked Examples- Law passage overview | Cosmic Justice (paired passages)
- Main point | Law passage | Cosmic Justice
- Recognition | Law passage | Cosmic Justice
- Inferences about views | Law passage | Cosmic Justice
- Inferences about info | Law passage | Cosmic Justice
- Principles | Law passage | Cosmic Justice
- Analogies | Law passage | Cosmic Justice
- Law passage overview | Copyright
- Main point | Law passage | Copyright
- Purpose of reference | Law passage | Copyright
- Applying to new contexts | Law passage | Copyright
- Humanities passage overview | Music (paired passages)
- Main point 1 | Humanities passage | Music
- Main point 2 | Humanities passage | Music
- Recognition | Humanities passage | Music
- Inferences about views | Humanities passage | Music
- Principles and analogies | Humanities passage | Music
- Additional evidence | Humanities passage | Music
- Primary purpose | Humanities passage | Music
- Science passage overview | The Sun
- Recognition 1 | Science passage | The Sun
- Recognition 2 | Science passage | The Sun
- Organizing info | Science passage | The Sun
- Inferences about views 1 | Science passage | The Sun
- Inferences about views 2 | Science passage | The Sun
- Inferences about views 3 | Science passage | The Sun
- Inferences about info | Science passage | The Sun
- Social science passage overview | Wool
- Main point | Social science passage | Wool
- Recognition 1 | Social science passage | Wool
- Recognition 2 | Social science passage | Wool
- Inferences about info | Social science passage | Wool
- Inferences about attitudes | Social science passage | Wool
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Inferences about views 1 | Science passage | The Sun
Watch a demonstration of one way to answer an Inferences about views question from a science passage on the LSAT. Created by Dave Travis.
Video transcript
- [Instructor] The passage
provides the strongest support for believing that some scientists, in the 1920s held, which one of the following views regarding Payne's interpretation of the spectroscopic
data relating to the sun? Okay, so that's a big, long question. Let's try to focus on what exactly it is. It's a question that is about support for believing that some
scientists, a group, in the 1920s held which
of the following views. So it's the views of a group, and what are the views about, there about Payne's interpretation of the spectroscopic
data relating to the sun. Okay, so if you recall, the main point of the entire passage was that scientists didn't
accept Payne's claim about the composition of the sun. So, we can head up to the passage and see what we can hunt
down about the views of the various groups mentioned, but this is a question
that's asking to find support about a certain groups' views. And it's a fairly common question type. So let's go up and see what we can find beyond just remembering that most of the scientists believe that her interpretation of the
spectroscopic data relating to the sun was actually
just, ya know, wrong. So let's see if we can find any, we're gonna through the whole passage and see what kind of views are mentioned. So first we have, ya know, strong resistance among
professional astronomers to her position, to her claim. So we're looking for
generally a negative thing. We have another view here, we hear about the orthodox
view about it being iron, the composition of the sun. If we're looking for other
people who hold views, we have Lord Kelvin who's
holding a view about or has an idea about how
the sun is made of iron and how that iron could compress itself and make the sun hot. Let's look at what other views we have. In this paragraph we have
preliminary examination of the spectroscopic data convinced Payne, 'cause this paragraph is
about Payne's analysis of the spectroscopic data. So, okay, here we are, let's see. Most astronomers, at the time, dismissed Payne's interpretation. So we heard that, so we gotta make a minuses
for most astronomers and some sought to explain it away simply by claiming that
what she had examined was data about the sun's outer surface rather than its interior. So here's some, here's some astronomers and here most astronomers. Let's see what we can find in the choices that are gonna help us, cross them out or choose the right answer. So A, The methodology she used in analyzing the data was outdated and thus her findings
were of doubtful validity. Okay, so we narrowed it a lot, most of the astronomers think that her findings are doubtful validity, but are they claiming that her methodology for analyzing the
spectrographic data is outdated, I think the word outdated is what's making this choice, wrong. So let's go to B, her interpretation of the
data was remarkably accurate and proved that the
traditional interpretation of the data to be incorrect. Okay, remarkably accurate,
that's a big double plus and we didn't hear a lot of big
double pluses from any views in support of Payne's
claim, so that's out. C, her findings are generally promising and warranted serious considera, warranted serious consideration, didn't hear generally promising. But no definitive assessment
of them could be made without verification of certain details. Nobody is saying that her
findings are generally promising, that's out. D, her interpretation of the data was not entirely ill founded, 'cause it was based on
the spectrographic data, but the overall conclusions she drew from the data were wrong. Okay, so that's looking pretty good. Let's look at E, her interpretation and the overall conclusions
she drew from it were correct. No, no, we don't hear
any astronomers saying that they hold the view
that she was correct. In fact if we look at D, the overall conclusions she
drew from the data were wrong, yeah, we heard that some astronomers think that she must have just been looking at the surface of the sun, but really wasn't seeing
any information about the interior of the sun and so she was basically wrong. So this is our answer, D.