Reading Comprehension · Primary Purpose

PrepTest 101 · Section 1 · Question 21

Phase 1 (your first ~400 questions): read the guidance, then answer. No clock.

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type

Primary Purpose

The one idea it tests

A passage that keeps adding wrinkles to a simple-looking distinction is exploring a question, not settling it.

The basic logic

Name each paragraph's job, then ask what they do together. If the author defines, complicates, and ends with a doubt rather than a verdict, the purpose is exploration. Reject verbs that claim the author argues for, settles, or merely traces something.

Tiny words that decide it

“unsettled”
“between”
“anyway”

Playground logic

The kid passage keeps showing that 'tattle or not?' is harder than it looks: in-between cases, history, and the soccer team's rule.

Step 2 · The kid passage

This question belongs to Passage 4 (Questions 21–27). Read its kid passage and structure guide first: Tattle or Tell? →

Step 3 · Try the model question

The kid passage is mainly doing which one of the following?

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 101, Section 1, Question 21 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

Open Question 21 in your official copy and answer it first.

Write a two- or three-word job for each paragraph. Note whether the passage ends with a firm verdict or an open doubt. Then judge each choice by its verb first: does the author really reconcile, trace, advocate, or reject? Eliminate choices that fit only one paragraph (Socks) and choices whose verb is stronger than what the author actually does.