- PowerScore Staff
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- Sat Feb 11, 2017 2:51 pm
#32690
Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=13369)
The correct answer choice is (D)
This question asks for the main point of the passage. As discussed above, the author’s main point is that superior performers’ extraordinary abilities appear, based on the available evidence, to be attributable to long term extensive training rather than innate abilities.
Answer choice (A): On line 47 the author provides that many characteristics can be altered with long term intense training. This is not, however, the main point of the passage. Rather, it is a premise provided in support of the notion that superior performance more likely comes from long-term practice rather than innate ability.
Answer choice (B): The author does not assert that anyone can achieve exceptional levels, but rather that a certain capacity, coupled with long-term intense training can lead to exceptional performance.
Answer choice (C): The author does not assert that innate ability is irrelevant, but rather that early competence, interest, and motivation appear to be better predictors of extraordinary performance than innate ability. This choice is too extreme to even pass the Fact Test, so it cannot be the right answer to this Main Point question.
Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice. As prephrased above, the author’s main point is that research suggests that training adaptations, rather than innate ability, may be the cause of superior performance.
Answer choice (E): This is a fairly clever wrong answer choice. The passage states that certain psychologists have, in the past, attributed superior performance to innate talent, and that more recent research leads to a different conclusion. But this does not mean that the same psychologists who had attributed superior performance to innate talent have changed their opinions, This choice does not even pass the Fact Test, so it cannot be the right answer to this Main Point question.
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=13369)
The correct answer choice is (D)
This question asks for the main point of the passage. As discussed above, the author’s main point is that superior performers’ extraordinary abilities appear, based on the available evidence, to be attributable to long term extensive training rather than innate abilities.
Answer choice (A): On line 47 the author provides that many characteristics can be altered with long term intense training. This is not, however, the main point of the passage. Rather, it is a premise provided in support of the notion that superior performance more likely comes from long-term practice rather than innate ability.
Answer choice (B): The author does not assert that anyone can achieve exceptional levels, but rather that a certain capacity, coupled with long-term intense training can lead to exceptional performance.
Answer choice (C): The author does not assert that innate ability is irrelevant, but rather that early competence, interest, and motivation appear to be better predictors of extraordinary performance than innate ability. This choice is too extreme to even pass the Fact Test, so it cannot be the right answer to this Main Point question.
Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice. As prephrased above, the author’s main point is that research suggests that training adaptations, rather than innate ability, may be the cause of superior performance.
Answer choice (E): This is a fairly clever wrong answer choice. The passage states that certain psychologists have, in the past, attributed superior performance to innate talent, and that more recent research leads to a different conclusion. But this does not mean that the same psychologists who had attributed superior performance to innate talent have changed their opinions, This choice does not even pass the Fact Test, so it cannot be the right answer to this Main Point question.