This is a fresh RC passage from Official LSAT, GMAT students who take this passage are welcome to share his/her take stats:

• Time consumed on this passage
• Right/wrong ratio
• Any thought on questions

Official Answers will be published after 2 days.

Thanks
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Hey Sajjad,

1) Took me close to 20 mins, including 7-8 mins of reading.

2) My Answers: C, D, B, C, E, D, E, B.

Please share OA & OE.

Thanks !

20 Mins
C,E,B,C,E,D,E,B

Kindly share the OA.

Regards,
Antriksh Rawat

Hello guys, here is the OAs of this passage. Now timer will also be available with each question.

1. C
2. E
3. B
4. C
5. E
6. D
7. A
8. B

The best time frame for this question is 16-18 minutes being 18 minutes at maximum.

Best regards
_________________

Would anyone help me to get explanation of the correct answers.

1. Which one of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

(A) The traditional view of medieval women as legally excluded from many public offices fails to consider thirteenth-century women in England who were exempted from such restrictions because of their wealth and social status.- not correct, the entire passage is all about 13th century women, especially widows, who controlled land and exercised power. So this choice is opposite of what the passage says about 13th century women

(B) The economic independence of women in thirteenth-century England was primarily determined not by their marital status, but by their status as heirs to their parents’ estates - not correct, I think this is a partial answer, 'as heirs to their parents' estates' happens only if no sons survived. But the passage is all about economic independence of widow women, and how did they acquire land

(C) The laws and customs of the feudal system in thirteenth-century England enabled some women to exercise a certain amount of power despite their legal exclusion from most public roles - correct, first para says 'Although medieval women were legally excluded from roles, women’s control of land had important political implications in the feudal system', and in the second and third paras, more details are given to explain how some women - widows - exercised power

(D) During the thirteenth century in England, widows gained greater autonomy and legal rights to their property than they had had in previous centuries - not correct, no comparison of autonomy and legal rights between two centuries

(E) Widows in thirteenth-century England were able to acquire and dispose of lands through a number of different legal processes - not correct, I think this is partial answer as these details of acquiring lands are given in second para.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. With which one of the following statements about the views held by the medievalists mentioned in line 1 would the author of the passage most probably agree?

(A) The medieval role of landowner was less affected by thirteenth-century changes in law than these medievalists customarily have recognized - not correct, there were some changes in law regarding landowner (In 1215 Magna Carta..), however there was no discussion of how medievalists have thought about these changes - whether these changes in law would help and worsen landowner's role

(B) The realm of law labeled public by these medievalists ultimately had greater political implications than that labeled private - not correct, there is no such comparison between public law and private law. Medievalists categorised public law and private law, however this distinction when applied to women was overly simplistic, because, some women exercised power although excluded legally from such powers. So, we can't infer that public laws had greater political implications than private laws did.

(C) The amount of wealth controlled by medieval women was greater than these medievalists have recorded - not correct, no discussion of how much wealth medieval women had as per medievalist records

(D) The distinction made by these medievalists between private law and public law fails to consider some of the actual legal cases of the period - not correct, no discussion of solving actual legal cases of 13th century

(E) The distinction made by these medievalists between private and public law fails to address the political importance of control over land in the medieval era - correct, the distinction made by these medievalists was when applied to women was overly simplistic. Here 'Overly simplistic' means, as per law, women didn't have official power (excluded from roles), but it reality, some women exercised power by holding land. So, we can say that the distinction fails to address the imp issue of controlling the land
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3. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the meaning of the word “sway” as it is used in line 60 of the passage?
passage says 'the scope of their sway is indicated by the fact that some controlled not merely single estates, but multiple counties', so I guess, these women controlled multiple counties or had power to control

(A) vacillation - not correct, I don't know the meaning of it
(B) dominion - correct, control/power, which is close to my guess of the line 60
(C) predisposition - not correct, not close to my guess
(D) inclination - not correct, some women were not inclined to multiple counties, rather controlled them because 'married women fulfilled these duties as
deputies'
(E) mediation - not correct, as deputies, these women might be mediating, however their power/control to mediate extended to multiple counties. So, mediation is not correct meaning for 'sway'
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4. Which one of the following most accurately describes the function of the second paragraph of the passage?

(A) providing examples of specific historical events as support for the conclusion drawn in the third paragraph - not correct, only two historical events - Magna Carta and After 1272 - are discussed. These events show how lands were transferred and how some women obtained those lands. Conclusion of the third para is these women exercised power using these lands, and supporting details are given in the same para. So, second para doesn't really support how women controlled the power.

(B) narrating a sequence of events whose outcome is discussed in the third paragraph - not correct, 'In 1215 Magna Carta guaranteed a widow’s right to claim her dower without paying a fine; this document also strengthened widows’ ability to control land by prohibiting forced remarriage' is an event, but the outcome of this event is not discussed in the third para

(C) explaining how circumstances described in the first paragraph could have occurred - correct, circumstances described in the first para are 'women’s control of land had important political implications', and the second para gives details under what situations, these women could inherit the land and control it

(D) describing the effects of an event mentioned in the first paragraph - not correct, I can't find any specific event in the first para
(E) evaluating the arguments of a group mentioned in the first paragraph - not correct, I don't think we are evaluating the arguments of medievalist
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5. According to information in the passage, a widow in early thirteenth-century England could control more land than did her eldest son if

(A) the widow had been granted the customary amount of dower land and the eldest son inherited the rest of the land - not correct
(B) the widow had three daughters in addition to her eldest son - not correct
(C) the principle of primogeniture had been applied in transferring the lands owned by the widow’s late husband - not correct
(D) none of the lands held by the widow’s late husband had been placed in jointure - not correct
(E) the combined amount of land the widow had acquired from her own family and from dower was greater than the amount inherited by her son - correct, 'Since many widows had inheritances as well as dowers, the amount of land the widow controlled could exceed that of her son or of other male heirs'
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6. Which one of the following is mentioned in the passage as a reason why a married woman might have fulfilled certain duties associated with holding feudal land in thirteenth-century England?

(A) the legal statutes set forth by Magna Carta - not correct, Magna Carta is connected to transferring the land, not fulfilling certain duties
(B) the rights a woman held over her inheritance during her marriage - not correct, no discussion of rights of a women to fulfil certain duties
(C) the customary division of duties between husbands and wives - not correct, no such discussion on customary division
(D) the absence of the woman’s husband - correct, passage says 'Many married women fulfilled these duties as deputies for husbands away at court or at war, but widows could act on their own behalf'
(E) the terms specified by the woman’s jointure agreement - not correct, no discussion of specific terms
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. The phrase “in England” (lines 30–31) does which one of the following?

(A) It suggests that women in other countries also received grants of their husbands’ lands - correct, passage says 'a widow was entitled to use of one-third
(30) of her late husband’s lands. Called “dower” in England', so we can infer that such grants were present in other countries and in England it is called as 'dower', otherwise, it would have been called with the same name used in other countries

(B) It identifies a particular code of law affecting women who were surviving daughters - not correct, this 'dower' is connected to 'widow', not specifically to surviving daughter
(C) It demonstrates that dower had greater legal importance in one European country than in others - not correct, no such comparison
(D) It emphasizes that women in one European country had more means of controlling property than did women in other European countries - not correct, again no such comparison
(E) It traces a legal term back to the time at which it entered the language - not correct, again no such mention of entering the legal book
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8. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) explain a legal controversy of the past in light of modern theory - not correct, no controversy is discussed
(B) evaluate the economic and legal status of a particular historical group - correct, a particular historical group is women in this passage, and we discussed about their economic and legal status under public laws and private laws

(C) resolve a scholarly debate about legal history - not correct, not resolved any debate in this passage
(D) trace the historical origins of a modern economic situation - not correct, no discussion of modern economic situation
(E) provide new evidence about a historical event - not correct, no discussion of new evidence

I took a total of 12 minutes 4 seconds to read the passage and answer all the questions. I got 7/8 correct.
I feel the difficulty level of this question wasn't very high but the passage was very lengthy and time consuming.

(05:07)
1. Which one of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

(A) The traditional view of medieval women as legally excluded from many public offices fails to consider thirteenth-century women in England who were exempted from such restrictions because of their wealth and social status.
(B) The economic independence of women in thirteenth-century England was primarily determined not by their marital status, but by their status as heirs to their parents’ estates.
(C) The laws and customs of the feudal system in thirteenth-century England enabled some women to exercise a certain amount of power despite their legal exclusion from most public roles.
(D) During the thirteenth century in England, widows gained greater autonomy and legal rights to their property than they had had in previous centuries.
(E) Widows in thirteenth-century England were able to acquire and dispose of lands through a number of different legal processes.

The first passage states that the distinction made by Medievalists was over simplistic as it did not take into account the scenario where women (read: widows) could own land which meant power (political power). They segregated public and private laws but did not consider the case in which the two intermingled. This is precisely what option (C) talks about. Because the widows owned land, they could exercise power, even though they did not partake in public roles. Thus, option C is the correct answer.


(02:27)
2. With which one of the following statements about the views held by the medievalists mentioned in line 1 would the author of the passage most probably agree?

(A) The medieval role of landowner was less affected by thirteenth-century changes in law than these medievalists customarily have recognized.
(B) The realm of law labeled public by these medievalists ultimately had greater political implications than that labeled private.
(C) The amount of wealth controlled by medieval women was greater than these medievalists have recorded.
(D) The distinction made by these medievalists between private law and public law fails to consider some of the actual legal cases of the period.
(E) The distinction made by these medievalists between private and public law fails to address the political importance of control over land in the medieval era.

As discussed in the solution to ques 1, the distinction does not address the political influence of the control over land that the widows owned. This is suggested in option E. Let us check where the othe roptions went wrong:
(A) The passage talks about widows as landowners and not the general term 'landowners' which is a superset of windows, men, boys, girls, married women, etc. This option is too general and also the affect of these change in laws is not discussed.
(B) This again is not explicitly stated in the passage. One would normally assume that governments would exercise more political influence than normal people, however, for lack of evidence to second this stance, we have to strike this option off.
(C) The discrepancy between what the women owned versus what the medievalisst thought is not stated in the passage. This is an easy choice to eliminate.
(D) The distinction does fail at something; however, that something is not the actual legal cases. To understand more about this distinction, refer to the solution of ques 1.

Thus, option E is the correct answer.


(00:42)
3. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the meaning of the word “sway” as it is used in line 60 of the passage?

(A) vacillation
(B) dominion
(C) predisposition
(D) inclination
(E) mediation

Upon reading the last sentence, I saw that I could easily eliminate (C), (D) and (E) becasue these words are relatively simpler. I was stuck between (A) and (B). I had no idea was vacillation meant and definitely could not infer its meaning from the word itself. So I focussed my attention on option B. Dominion sounded familia : almost like dominance which could be equated to power/supremacy. This is what led me to select option B. (even though I wasn't sure of the meaning of B either) In questions such as these, try to think of similar words that you know the meaning of. This might help you take an informed guess, instead of choosing whatever comes to your mind first.

(03:00)
4. Which one of the following most accurately describes the function of the second paragraph of the passage?

(A) providing examples of specific historical events as support for the conclusion drawn in the third paragraph
(B) narrating a sequence of events whose outcome is discussed in the third paragraph
(C) explaining how circumstances described in the first paragraph could have occurred
(D) describing the effects of an event mentioned in the first paragraph
(E) evaluating the arguments of a group mentioned in the first paragraph

I must say this was a rather tricky question. After much contemplation, I narrowed down to (B) and (C), but ended up choosing the incorrect choice. There wasn't much of an option for me because I thought that both options made sense.


(00:33)
5. According to information in the passage, a widow in early thirteenth-century England could control more land than did her eldest son if

(A) the widow had been granted the customary amount of dower land and the eldest son inherited the rest of the land
(B) the widow had three daughters in addition to her eldest son
(C) the principle of primogeniture had been applied in transferring the lands owned by the widow’s late husband
(D) none of the lands held by the widow’s late husband had been placed in jointure
(E) the combined amount of land the widow had acquired from her own family and from dower was greater than the amount inherited by her son

This is a very straightforward question. If you understood the passage well, you know that the widows have two sources of their income, namely, inherited money (from parents or guardians) and dower (from late husband). If the sum of these two amounts is greater than the sum that the son would inherit, the wealth of his mother has to be more than him.

(00:20)
6. Which one of the following is mentioned in the passage as a reason why a married woman might have fulfilled certain duties associated with holding feudal land in thirteenth-century England?

(A) the legal statutes set forth by Magna Carta
(B) the rights a woman held over her inheritance during her marriage
(C) the customary division of duties between husbands and wives
(D) the absence of the woman’s husband
(E) the terms specified by the woman’s jointure agreement

This is also lifted from information given directly in the passage. Refer to this sentence from the final paragraph: "Many married women fulfilled these duties as deputies for husbands away at court or at war..".

(00:30)
7. The phrase “in England” (lines 30–31) does which one of the following?

(A) It suggests that women in other countries also received grants of their husbands’ lands.
(B) It identifies a particular code of law affecting women who were surviving daughters.
(C) It demonstrates that dower had greater legal importance in one European country than in others.
(D) It emphasizes that women in one European country had more means of controlling property than did women in other European countries.
(E) It traces a legal term back to the time at which it entered the language.

Saying that this grant was called dower in England meant that is form of grant exists in other parts of the world, maybe known by other names.

(00:45)
8. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) explain a legal controversy of the past in light of modern theory
(B) evaluate the economic and legal status of a particular historical group
(C) resolve a scholarly debate about legal history
(D) trace the historical origins of a modern economic situation
(E) provide new evidence about a historical event

The whole passage talks exclusively about the widows. so any option that says otherwise can be immediately ousted.
(A) is out because no modern theory is stated in the passage. Whatever the author talks about has taken place in the past. She makes no connection between the past and the current scenario. Also, there is nothing "controversial" discussed in the passage.
(B) This is the correct choice. Here historical group = widows
(C) There is no debate that the author resolves.
(D) Again, no link between historical and modern situation has been made.
(E) No new evidence discussed.
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Took me 9:30 minutes to read as well as answer the questions. A couple of questions had confusing options but overall a decent passage. I had 7/8 correct.

Took nearly 11 minutes

5 correct

Got 2nd, 4th and 6th questions wrong

Sajjad1994 nightblade354 AjiteshArun
Dear Experts,
would love to hear your thoughts on Q4. C was not even in my list, moreover what would be a good reason to eliminate B and A?
Thanks in advance

(A) is wrong because the historical events mentioned in paragraph 2 (Magna Carta, and the 1272 jointure law) only serve to further the claim made earlier on—that women were able to control land. These events are not directly tied to the points made in the final paragraph regarding the kinds of influence that resulted from such land ownership.

(B) is not fir because the information in the second paragraph can’t be said to truly represent a sequence of events. Even though the years 1215 and 1272 are mentioned, we can’t infer that the customs and events described in this paragraph are listed so as to form a sequence that leads to a particular result in the following paragraph. Just because women were able to acquire land doesn’t mean that this must inevitably lead to the use of the wealth conferred by the land as discussed in paragraph 3.
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20 minutes. 8/8. I've been consistently scoring 40% on LSAT passages so things are terrible.

1. Which one of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

(A) The traditional view of medieval women as legally excluded from many public offices fails to consider thirteenth-century women in England who were exempted from such restrictions because of their wealth and social status. X
(B) The economic independence of women in thirteenth-century England was primarily determined not by their marital status, but by their status as heirs to their parents’ estates. X
(C) The laws and customs of the feudal system in thirteenth-century England enabled some women to exercise a certain amount of power despite their legal exclusion from most public roles. CORRECT
(D) During the thirteenth century in England, widows gained greater autonomy and legal rights to their property than they had had in previous centuries. X
(E) Widows in thirteenth-century England were able to acquire and dispose of lands through a number of different legal processes. X

2. With which one of the following statements about the views held by the medievalists mentioned in line 1 would the author of the passage most probably agree?

(A) The medieval role of landowner was less affected by thirteenth-century changes in law than these medievalists customarily have recognized. X
(B) The realm of law labeled public by these medievalists ultimately had greater political implications than that labeled private. X
(C) The amount of wealth controlled by medieval women was greater than these medievalists have recorded. X
(D) The distinction made by these medievalists between private law and public law fails to consider some of the actual legal cases of the period. X
(E) The distinction made by these medievalists between private and public law fails to address the political importance of control over land in the medieval era. CORRECT

3. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the meaning of the word “sway” as it is used in line 60 of the passage?

(A) vacillation X
(B) dominion CORRECT
(C) predisposition X
(D) inclination X
(E) mediation X

4. Which one of the following most accurately describes the function of the second paragraph of the passage?

(A) providing examples of specific historical events as support for the conclusion drawn in the third paragraph X
(B) narrating a sequence of events whose outcome is discussed in the third paragraph X
(C) explaining how circumstances described in the first paragraph could have occurred CORRECT
(D) describing the effects of an event mentioned in the first paragraph X
(E) evaluating the arguments of a group mentioned in the first paragraph X

5. According to information in the passage, a widow in early thirteenth-century England could control more land than did her eldest son if

(A) the widow had been granted the customary amount of dower land and the eldest son inherited the rest of the land X
(B) the widow had three daughters in addition to her eldest son X
(C) the principle of primogeniture had been applied in transferring the lands owned by the widow’s late husband X
(D) none of the lands held by the widow’s late husband had been placed in jointure X
(E) the combined amount of land the widow had acquired from her own family and from dower was greater than the amount inherited by her son CORRECT

6. Which one of the following is mentioned in the passage as a reason why a married woman might have fulfilled certain duties associated with holding feudal land in thirteenth-century England?

(A) the legal statutes set forth by Magna Carta X
(B) the rights a woman held over her inheritance during her marriage X
(C) the customary division of duties between husbands and wives X
(D) the absence of the woman’s husband CORRECT
(E) the terms specified by the woman’s jointure agreement X

7. The phrase “in England” (lines 30–31) does which one of the following?

(A) It suggests that women in other countries also received grants of their husbands’ lands. CORRECT
(B) It identifies a particular code of law affecting women who were surviving daughters. X
(C) It demonstrates that dower had greater legal importance in one European country than in others. X
(D) It emphasizes that women in one European country had more means of controlling property than did women in other European countries. X
(E) It traces a legal term back to the time at which it entered the language. X

8. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) explain a legal controversy of the past in light of modern theory X
(B) evaluate the economic and legal status of a particular historical group CORRECT
(C) resolve a scholarly debate about legal history X
(D) trace the historical origins of a modern economic situation X
(E) provide new evidence about a historical event X
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