The author refers to the increased awareness of civil rights during the 1940s and 1950s most probably in order to

Victoria July 8, 2019

Hi @Julie-V,

Absolutely! Let's start by going through the first paragraph of the passage together.

The passage tells us that "during the 1940s and 1950s, the U.S. government developed a new policy toward Native Americans, often known as 'readjustment.'" The "readjustment movement" focused on ending "the federal government's involvement in Native American affairs" and encouraged Native Americans to assimilate into the mainstream society. The passage tells us that this is because of the "increased awareness of civil rights" which "helped reinforce the belief that life on reservations prevented Native Americans from exercising the rights guaranteed to citizens under the U.S. Constitution." The paragraph then continues on and talks about Native American leadership and how this was influenced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

The question stem asks us to identify the most probable reason why the author refers to this increased awareness of civil rights.

We can see from our summary of the first paragraph above that this "increased awareness of civil rights" helped to reinforce the belief that the reservation system infringed upon Native Americans' capacity to exercise their rights as citizens and that this belief helped to catalyze the readjustment movement which focused on ending the federal government's involvement and encouraged the assimilation of Native Americans into mainstream society.

Impetus means a force that makes something happen; in this case, the impetus for the readjustment movement was this increased awareness of civil rights, making C the correct answer.

A is incorrect because the passage does not discuss additional social phenomena that we can compare the readjustment movement to. While we can consider the civil rights movement to be a social phenomenon, the passage does not contrast this with the readjustment movement; rather, it uses the civil rights movement to help explain the readjustment movement.

D is incorrect because this reference occurs before we are introduced to the BIA. If it were used to explain the motives of BIA bureaucrats, it is likely that the author would have at least introduced the BIA to the reader prior to attempting to explain their motives.

E is incorrect because the remaining paragraphs of the passage suggest that the author does not think highly of the policy of readjustment. Therefore, it does not make sense that the author would be trying to get the reader to support the policy of readjustment if they themselves do not also support it.

As for dealing with unfamiliar words, unfortunately there is not much that you can do on the day of the test if you encounter one outside of trying to determine the meaning from its context. While I was studying for the LSAT, I kept a list of unfamiliar words that I came across in practice questions as well as their definitions. Writing out the definitions helps them to stick in your brain a little bit better and, if you come across one of these words on the day of the test, at least you will have read and written the definition once before!

Overall, the best strategy is to keep reading and keep learning as you work through the practice questions.

Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Julie-V July 9, 2019

thank you for the clarification and the advice! I see more clearly why choice C is the right answer =)

Vukatu June 9, 2021

How is the answer for 11, not B? I did the work in the book and checked my answer in the book and B is listed as the correct choice - which I picked.

Vukatu June 9, 2021

I solved my question. In the book ( at least the copy I have) You start at 7, (for this section) but on the app/website you start at 8, so if someone is doing their work in the book and just coming on here to plug in their answer like I was, the input will be off.

For example, question 11 on the web/app states"The author refers to the increased awareness of civil rights during the 1940s and 1950s most probably in order to" ..... but that question is #10 in the book. I hope that makes sense.