Reading Comprehension · Law
PrepTest 115 · Section 1 · Passage 2
Questions 6–12
Before you start
Open PrepTest 115, Section 1 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 6–12, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- P1: names a person's famous win and reports a claim by some observers that earlier efforts paved the way
- P2: describes a split between two approaches at the start and explains the person's choice to use the practical one first to prepare for the theoretical one
- P3: traces how a key method was developed in a middle effort and later reused in the big win, backing up the observers' claim from P1
Step 2 · The kid passage
Priya and the Optional-But-Graded Rule
When Priya talked the principal into ending the optional-but-graded weekend homework rule in May, it was not her first trip to his office. Some older council members say her earlier visits were needed warm-ups: chances to test her methods and to chip away at the rule, bit by bit, before the big win.
In September, when Priya joined, the council was split. One side wanted to show that certain weekend assignments were not really optional, and to get those assignments trimmed. The other side wanted a bigger, more abstract case: a task cannot be both optional and graded, so the rule contradicts itself and makes no sense. Priya believed the abstract case would win in the end. But first she brought several practical complaints, to show the principal the many ways grading made weekend work feel required, so he would be ready to hear the big case.
She won some small fights, like a shorter Friday math packet. But it took until spring to find a way to jump from single unfair cases to the big picture. In the reading-log fight, the principal had said each family's reading choices were private and none of the school's business. Priya brought a tally chart from 200 students showing that, added together, all those private choices formed a clear pattern of kids feeling forced. In May she used the same tally method again, and the older members say the reading-log win is what taught the principal to trust tally charts as real proof.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Allowed-But-Fined Hoops
Judge Okafor looked over her glasses. "Mr. Whitfield, you want the town to drop its rule that driveway basketball hoops are allowed but fined?" "Yes, Your Honor. A thing cannot be allowed and punished at once. The rule fights itself." "Bold. Why didn't you say that last year?" Mr. Whitfield smiled. "Last year I brought small cases: one fine too high here, one notice sent late there. I won some. Then I gathered every single fine on my street and showed that, added up, they made a pattern of quiet bans." He held up a thick chart. "The court accepted that chart once. Now I'm using it for the big question." The judge chuckled. "So the small cases were your warm-up laps."