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Reading Comprehension · Social Science

PrepTest 126 · Section 2 · Passage 4

Questions 22–27

Before you start

Open PrepTest 126, Section 2 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 22–27, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.

Structure guide

  1. P1: defines a key term, reports a classic account that treats an episode as an example of it, then introduces a second scholar who challenges that account
  2. P2: gives the background facts and lays out the first scholar's version of the episode, step by step
  3. P3: presents the second scholar's concession on the facts and his alternative explanation, concluding the episode need not fit the term

Step 2 · The kid passage

Guppy Fever?

At Maple School, kids trade class pets for stickers. A 'hype bubble' is when the sticker price of something shoots up not because of anything the thing can give its owner, but only because buyers guess a friend will pay even more later. Then trust in the climb runs out, and the price crashes. Marcus, the self-named detective, wrote a famous class report saying the Glitter Guppy craze was a hype bubble. Priya disagrees. She says there is no proof it was hype at all.

Here is what happened. Owen bred the very first Glitter Guppy, a fish with sparkly fins, and plain guppies were worth almost nothing. According to Marcus, in October kids started trading just to flip fish, and the price of the first Glitter Guppy leaped to 40 stickers. Then, Marcus says, in November the price fell off a cliff, and by spring a Glitter Guppy cost 1 sticker.

Priya agrees the price went way up and then way down. But she says the 'what it can give' side explains it. New pet colors follow a familiar pattern: the first one costs a lot, especially once the color gets popular. Then, as babies are born and the color becomes common, each fish gets cheap. That does not make the 40 stickers silly. The first guppy had dozens of babies, and even at 1 sticker each, selling them can earn back the price. So the rise and fall need not mean hype.

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Case of the Champion Hen

In a made-up village court, a farmer was accused of being swept up in 'Hen Mania' for paying 300 coins for the first speckled champion hen. 'Six months later, speckled chicks sold for one coin each!' the accuser cried. 'That is pure craze.' Mr. Whitfield tugged his suspenders. 'Your Honor, nobody denies the price soared and then sank. But look at what the hen could produce.' He unrolled a ledger. 'She hatched hundreds of speckled chicks. Even at one coin each, my client earned his money back and more. This is the usual path for any new breed: the first one is dear, the copies are cheap.' The judge closed the file. 'A rise and fall is not proof of madness. Case dismissed.'

Guidance for each question