PrepTest 115 · Section 2 · Question 8 (Parallel Reasoning)

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type

Parallel Reasoning

The one idea it tests

Match the shape: a problem that can come from two sources is prevented by giving both sources something else to do.

The basic logic

X-Ray the original: (1) an unwanted result can come from either of two sources; (2) occupy both sources with a harmless substitute; (3) so the unwanted result is blocked. The right answer has all three pieces, in that relationship, on any topic.

Tiny words that decide it

“either”
“so”
“both”

Playground logic

Kevin distracts class either by talking or by doodling on his neighbor's paper. Give his voice a story to read aloud and his hands a map to color, and both channels are busy. That is the X-Ray shape: two sources, both filled, problem gone.

Step 2 · The kid story

Keeping Kevin Busy

Kevin distracts his table in two ways: he talks about dinosaurs, or he doodles stegosauruses on his neighbor's worksheet. Owen had an idea. "What if Kevin reads the class story out loud and colors the class map all at once? His mouth is busy with reading, his hands are busy with coloring. No room left for distractions!" Priya sipped her juice box. "Let me X-Ray that. Problem: distractions. Two sources: mouth and hands. Fix: give both sources a harmless job. So the distractions get crowded out." Lulu wrote the shape on her clipboard: two doors, fill both, problem out. Kevin, overhearing, asked whether the class story could please be about dinosaurs. Everyone agreed that it could not.

Step 3 · Try the model question

Kevin can distract his table either by talking or by doodling on a neighbor's paper. So if Kevin is given a story to read aloud and a map to color, his distractions can be prevented, since his voice and his hands will both be busy.

Which choice has reasoning most like Kevin's situation above?

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Noisy Neighbor's Parrot

A neighbor sued because a parrot made noise in two ways: squawking and banging its beak on the cage bars. The parrot's owner, represented by Mr. Whitfield, proposed a fix. "Your Honor, the noise has two sources: the beak's squawking and the beak's banging. We'll give the parrot a puzzle feeder that keeps its beak cracking seeds and a mirror that keeps it chatting softly to itself. Both sources occupied, noise prevented." The judge rubbed her chin. "So you're not removing the bird or the cage. You're giving each noisy habit something harmless to do instead?" "Exactly." The judge approved a one-month trial. The neighbor reported that the parrot now mostly whispered compliments to its reflection.

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 115, Section 2, Question 8 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

X-Ray the original into plain pieces: a bad outcome, two possible sources of it, and a remedy that keeps both sources busy with something harmless, so the bad outcome is blocked. Then X-Ray each choice the same way, ignoring its topic. Cross out any choice missing one of those pieces or solving the problem by a different move. Keep the one whose skeleton matches piece for piece: two sources, a substitute for each, problem prevented.