Reading Comprehension · Main Point

PrepTest 101 · Section 4 · 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

Main Point

The one idea it tests

When two later voices challenge an older thesis and one of them ends up partly restoring it, the main point must hold both the challenge and the partial rescue.

The basic logic

Trace the arc: old thesis, first challenge, second challenge that circles back. Pre-phrase a sentence with both halves. Reject answers that crown the wrong voice, that claim nobody answered the open question, or that say the old thesis was vindicated on the very point the later scholar says it got wrong.

Tiny words that decide it

“although”
“partly”
“yet”

Playground logic

Nadia and Priya both poke at Owen's money story, but Priya ends up showing Owen was partly right. That arc is the point.

Step 2 · The kid passage

This question belongs to Passage 4 (Questions 21–27). Read its kid passage and structure guide first: Why Did Fernvale Retire the Old Ferry? →

Step 3 · Try the model question

Which choice best states the central idea of the kid passage?

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 101, Section 4, 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.

Label each voice in the margin: the original thesis, the first challenger, the second challenger. Note where the second challenger lands relative to the original. Pre-phrase a one-sentence summary with both the challenge and the partial agreement. Cut choices that favor the wrong voice, that leave out the partial agreement, or that endorse the exact piece of the old thesis the passage says was mistaken.