Reading Comprehension · Humanities
PrepTest 110 · Section 1 · Passage 2
Questions 7–12
Before you start
Open PrepTest 110, Section 1 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 7–12, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- P1: rejects a common reading drawn from a name, argues that two seemingly opposite things share a deep aim, cites a label as support, and suggests a common source
- P2: describes the older tradition behind both, shows both share the same arc, links them to an ancestral practice, and pins down the special sense of an important word
- P3: explains how the first of the two works, gives an example of its irony, and closes with a critic's view of its purpose
Step 2 · The kid passage
Grumble Tag
Kids hear the name Grumble Tag and assume the game is just complaining. Wrong. Even though players groan about bad luck, and even though teachers sometimes frown at the noise, Grumble Tag has a lot in common with Cheer Relay, the happy game the principal loves. Both aim to flip a player's mood; Grumble Tag just takes a different road to the same giddy joy. Owen even calls Grumble Tag 'a backwards cheer.' The odd label says it plainly: the two games share a core. They may both draw on one shared pool of recess habits. Ms. Rivera notes the school's oldest games never split play into 'happy games' and 'sad games.' That fits these two. Both are played in the far corner by the oak tree, both begin with a chant, and both end in a pile of laughing kids. Grandpa says both come from the Yard Gathering of his school days, where every kid had to help make the fun instead of watching. He called the feeling 'a jolt,' meaning, in his old sense, a shove out of your usual spot, out of your everyday mood. Grumble Tag works by calling up the bad luck so a skilled player can turn it into a show. When Kevin got tagged six times, he bowed and named himself Champion of Getting Caught, turning a loss into a trophy. Owen says the point is to keep the sting around so you can squeeze out something both sad and funny.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Two Walls
Judge Ida Fenn peered over her glasses. 'The lease lets the bakery keep one display wall. It has two: a Praise Wall and a Gripe Wall. Pick one, Mr. Whitfield.' He tugged his suspenders. 'Your Honor, they are one display in two coats. Customers pin a complaint on the Gripe Wall, and the baker answers each with a joke and a free cookie. People leave smiling, same as at the Praise Wall. Both came from the founder's old habit of letting every customer write on the shop. Same aim, same roots.' The landlord's lawyer scoffed. 'One is gloomy.' 'Gloomy on top,' said Whitfield. 'Cheerful by the end.' The judge smiled. 'One wall it is, then.'