Reading Comprehension · Social Science

PrepTest 104 · Section 2 · Passage 4

Questions 22–26

Before you start

Open PrepTest 104, Section 2 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 22–26, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.

Structure guide

P1: introduces a study, explains the method it shares with earlier researchers and the assumption behind it, and lays out the step-by-step timeline it produces
P2: presents the study's theory, a chain of causes that fits the evidence
P3: the author points out a possible central flaw: the whole account rests on the evidence being accurate, and gives an example of how the key assumption could fail

Step 2 · The kid passage

Why the Garden Club Faded

In her class report, Nadia tries to solve a school mystery: why did the old Garden Club fade away? She bases it on the club's leftover records. Like earlier report writers, she uses plant labels, each stamped with the date a seed was planted. She treats the planting of new labeled seeds as proof a plot was in use, and takes it that when fresh labels stopped, the plot was abandoned. Her timeline: for two years, labels kept increasing, but the club stopped claiming new plots and planted only in old ones. Next, notes show that trading deals between plots fell apart. Then more members quit than joined. Finally, new labels stopped everywhere, and soon the club was gone. With that timeline, Nadia offers a sensible theory. Membership grew, especially among club officers, so plots were farmed harder. Hard-worked soil gave fewer tomatoes per hour of digging. Meanwhile, more officers wanted fancy signs and award ribbons, pulling helpers off weeding. Plots raided each other for helpers and seeds, and kids fled from the poorest plots. Weak plots failed first, and each failure dragged down others. If Nadia's report has a central flaw, it is that everything rests on the records telling the true story. Old records may not match what really happened, and a theory can only be tested against the best records available. Better records could change the whole picture. For example, if kids learned that some plots were still being watered long after the label habit stopped, her key assumption would collapse.

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Case of the Silent Ledger

A landlord tried to evict a tenant named Pell, claiming Pell had moved out. His proof: Pell's apartment stopped receiving new packages in March. "No new deliveries means nobody lives there," the landlord's lawyer said. Mr. Whitfield tugged his suspenders. "A tidy timeline," he said, "and a plausible story. But it rests entirely on one assumption: that packages tell the true story of who lives where." He called the neighbor, who testified she heard Pell's cello every evening through summer. "Mr. Pell simply stopped ordering things online," Mr. Whitfield said. "The record went quiet. The apartment did not." The judge ruled that the package log could not prove the apartment was empty.