Reading Comprehension · Law
PrepTest 105 · Section 3 · Passage 2
Questions 8–14
Before you start
Open PrepTest 105, Section 3 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 8–14, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- P1: offers two extreme examples of a common intuition and asks where that intuition comes from
- P2: lays out two competing views, notes why the second is disputed, and gives its supporters' reply
- P3: raises a problem for the first view and argues the intuition seems to fit only the second
- P4: offers a counterargument that folds the second view back into the first and concludes with that reduction
Step 2 · The kid passage
How Big Should a Prize Be?
How Big Should a Prize Be?
Most of us can picture prizes that seem the wrong size for the deed. A single sticker for the kid who saved the class hamster from a falling bookshelf feels far too small. A giant gold trophy for remembering to push in your chair feels far too big. But where do these gut feelings about prize size come from?
People give two big reasons for handing out prizes. The first says a prize is justified by what it does for the class: it makes kids want to repeat good deeds, and it shows everyone what good deeds look like. The second says a prize is justified by how much the deed deserves, whether or not the prize helps anyone. Some kids dislike the second reason, because a prize that helps nobody looks like just a present. Its fans answer that the real question is not whether a prize is useful but whether it fits.
Here is a trouble spot for the usefulness reason. Huge prizes for tiny deeds might work very well. Give a trophy for every pushed-in chair, and every chair would be pushed in. Still, something tells us the prize is way too big, that it is unfair. That feeling seems to have only one home: the fit reason, which says some prizes simply match some deeds. The usefulness reason has no idea of fit at all; it would allow any prize that helps.
But maybe our sense that a trophy is too much really comes from seeing that it costs the class more than the tidy chairs are worth. And maybe a prize feels fair when its cost and its payoff balance out. If so, the fit reason rests on the usefulness reason after all, and its special flavor fades away. Even our gut feelings about fair prizes may come down to usefulness.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Stapler Bonus
A company gave a worker a beach house for fixing a jammed stapler. Unhappy owners sued. Mr. Whitfield, suspenders gleaming, argued, "Your Honor, this bonus simply does not fit the deed. Fit matters by itself, useful or not." The other lawyer, Ms. Banerjee, stood. "The company says the bonus made every worker eager to fix things. So it was useful. Why does it feel wrong? Not because of some magic fit. Because it cost the owners far more than one stapler is worth. Mr. Whitfield's sense of fit is really just a cost and benefit tally in disguise." Judge Okafor tapped her pen. "So both of you agree the bonus is too big. You only disagree about why." Priya, watching, sipped her juice box and wrote: second view folded into the first.