The ancient Romans understood the principles of water power very well, and in some outlying parts of their empire the...

Tyler808 April 26, 2022

Talk about another distinctive language by LSAT

The last sentence starts off with "This makes it all more striking that the Romans made do" Made do? Yeah, that doesn't make any sense and that threw my whole scenario off. Any tips on overcoming LSATS foreign language?

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Angel92 April 28, 2022

I know right. I feel you; that's what threw me off as well. I'm also having a hard time visualizing how E is the correct answer and it's all because of that "Made do".

Emil-Kunkin May 1, 2022

Hi Tyler and Angel,

Idiomatic language can be extremely tricky for non-native speakers. While The LSAC has tried to make an effort to make the test less biased towards native speakers (this question is from 1992) there is always a possibility that you could see an unfamiliar idiom. IF that happens, I would try to treat the idiom like an unfamiliar word and work it out from the context. In this case, we are told that the Romans did incredible stuff with water in some places, but they surprisingly "made do" without it in cities. Even if we don't know that "Make do" means roughly to manage/be ok, we could probably reach something similar from the context.

I would also try to read as much non-lsat nonfiction in English as possible. Newspapers are particularly good, and even listening to podcasts can be helpful since the language tends to be more informal.

Angel92 May 7, 2022

Thank you, this was very helpful!! Yes, I agree with you. I'm definitely incorporating more challenging texts to read into my life and asking "google" many questions about certain terms that I'm unfamiliar with, I do feel this can be one of the ways that will help me absorb the readings/language of the LSAT. I'm seeing gradual improvement. Thank you for your suggestions.

Emil-Kunkin May 13, 2022

Hi Angel,

One other thing that might be helpful is looking up/familiarizing yourself with common (American) English expressions and idioms. While I still think that reading difficult texts and googling when you see something unfamiliar are best, looking to see unfamiliar expressions or idioms can be helpful so the first time you see one is not on test day. I wouldn't go to the effort of memorizing a list, but spending a few minutes browsing/googling common idioms and expressions couldn't hurt.

Angel92 May 14, 2022

Ok sounds good, I'll keep a note of that. Thank you!