Logical Reasoning · Paradox

PrepTest 129 · Section 3 · Question 7

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

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type

Paradox (Explain the Result)

The one idea it tests

Removing something that seems harmful backfires because that harmful thing was also supplying a needed resource.

The basic logic

Expected: take away X, Y grows. Actual: Y shrinks. Look for a hidden way that X's activity helps Y, so losing X cut off something Y needed.

Tiny words that decide it

“expected”
“instead”
“but”

Playground logic

Bottom bun: the bouncy ball knocks down block towers. Ms. Rivera removed it and expected more towers, but got fewer. Handshake fact: kids build new towers from the blocks that the ball's crashes scatter, so no crashes means no free blocks.

Step 2 · The kid story

The Case of the Missing Bouncy Ball

In Ms. Rivera's class, kids loved building block towers during free time. But a red bouncy ball kept rolling across the rug and knocking them over. "That ball is the tower destroyer!" said Marcus. So Ms. Rivera put the ball in a closet. Everyone expected a city of towers. Instead, by Friday there were fewer towers than ever. Marcus scratched his head. Priya sipped her juice box and pointed at the rug. "Look. Every tower is still standing from Monday. Nobody knocks anything down, so all the blocks are stuck inside old towers." Lulu nodded. "When the ball crashed towers, the blocks spilled out, and new kids grabbed them to build. The crashes were feeding the builders." Kevin asked if he could build a dinosaur out of the closet.

Step 3 · Try the model question

A bouncy ball often knocked over students' block towers. Ms. Rivera removed the ball, expecting the number of towers to grow. Instead, the number of towers dropped.

Assume each choice is true. Which one best clears up the unexpected outcome?

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Case of the Vanished Food Trucks

The town council banned the noisy weekly flea market from the parking lot, expecting the food trucks there to do better. Instead, half the trucks left. A truck owner sued. Mr. Whitfield cross-examined her. "Before the ban, who bought your tacos?" She paused. "Mostly the shoppers who came for the flea market." "So the market that crowded your lot also fed you customers?" "I suppose so." Mr. Whitfield turned to the judge. "Your Honor, removing the market removed the very crowd the trucks lived on. No mystery at all."

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 129, Section 3, Question 7 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

State the expectation and the surprise. Then ask: in what way could the removed thing have been helping, not just hurting? The right answer shows a resource or benefit that flowed from the removed thing's activity. Be careful with answers that only restate harm, or that would predict growth instead of shrinkage.