Logical Reasoning · Role of a Statement
PrepTest 113 · Section 3 · Question 12
Phase 1 (your first ~400 questions): read the guidance, then answer. No clock.
Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first
- “others”
- “against”
- “reply”
Playground logic
The soccer team camp says the handshake came from kicking because it ends in a foot tap. The rival camp punches back: the dance club taps feet too. That point is a Rival's evidence aimed at the soccer-team claim, not at the band debate later on.
Step 2 · The kid story
Who Invented the Secret Handshake?
Everyone at school was doing the new secret handshake. But who invented it? Some kids said the soccer team did, because the handshake ends with a foot tap, and foot taps surely come from kicking balls. Other kids rightly disagreed. They pointed out that the chess club does the handshake with no foot tap at all, and that the dance club taps its feet all the time too. Meanwhile, a different crowd had their own fight. The kids who think the band invented it say it could not have come from the art club. They insist the band made it up to help keep the beat during marching practice. Lulu drew boxes on her clipboard: soccer camp, rivals, band camp, art camp. "Two fights," she said. "Do not mix them up."
Step 3 · Try the model question
Some kids claim the soccer team invented the secret handshake, since its foot tap must come from kicking. Others rightly reply that the chess club does it without a foot tap and that the dance club taps feet too. Kids who credit the band reject the idea that the art club invented it, saying band kids needed it to keep the beat.
The statement that the dance club taps its feet too serves mainly as which of the following?
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Mystery Recipe
Two bakeries both claimed to have invented the town's famous braided bread. Attorney Kline argued, "The braid must come from Sunrise Bakery, because Sunrise uses sesame seeds, and the bread has sesame seeds." Mr. Whitfield stood. "Your Honor, the Lakeside loaf has no seeds at all and is still braided. And three other bakeries in town use sesame seeds too." Later, two other parties argued over whether the braid came from a cooking school or a farm fair. The judge sorted it out. "Mr. Whitfield's point about the other bakeries is aimed at Sunrise's claim. It has nothing to do with the cooking school fight."
Step 5 · Work the real question
Open PrepTest 113, Section 3, Question 12 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.
Your answer
How to apply it
Label each camp in the passage and what it claims. Find the statement in question and see which sentence introduces it: is it part of a reply to one camp? Then ask whether it helps or hurts that camp. Choose the answer naming the right target and the right direction. Be careful with answers that point the statement at a different camp in a second, separate debate.