Reading Comprehension · Function

PrepTest 113 · Section 1 · Question 12

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

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type

Function

The one idea it tests

Ask why the paragraph is there, not what it says.

The basic logic

Check what the rest of the passage does with the paragraph. If later paragraphs judge the facts it lays out, its job is to supply those facts for that judgment.

Tiny words that decide it

“first”
“then”
“based on”

Playground logic

The rumor story's opening paragraph just lists what Grandpa did and found. Later paragraphs weigh that work, so the first paragraph supplies the facts to be judged.

Step 2 · The kid passage

This question belongs to Passage 2 (Questions 8–13). Read its kid passage and structure guide first: Grandpa and the Great Rumor Study →

Step 3 · Try the model question

The rumor story's opening paragraph mainly serves to

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 113, Section 1, Question 12 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

Open Question 12 in your official copy and answer it first.

Read the paragraph the stem names and decide its mode: narrating, arguing, or judging. Then check what later paragraphs do with it. Predict the job in role words. Choose the choice that names that role, and drop choices that describe another paragraph's job or claim the paragraph judges when it only reports.