Logical Reasoning · Paradox

PrepTest 134 · Section 3 · Question 13

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

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type

Paradox

The one idea it tests

A count jumps a lot, yet a total that seems to include it barely moves. Explain it by showing the counted part is only a sliver of the total.

The basic logic

State both sides: the part grew; the whole stayed put. The Handshake Test: the right answer lets both facts shake hands, usually by showing the part is tiny compared to the whole.

Tiny words that decide it

“yet”
“even so”
“barely”

Playground logic

Kevin finds five times more stickers in the art box than anyone thought, but the estimated weight of the whole box barely changes. Both facts get along once you learn stickers are a tiny share of the box's weight, next to the heavy clay and paint jars.

Step 2 · The kid story

The Sticker Surprise

Ms. Rivera asked the class to guess how heavy the big art supply box was. They agreed: about twenty pounds. Then Kevin dug through the bottom and shouted, "There are FIVE TIMES more stickers in here than we thought! Dinosaur ones!" Marcus said, "Then the box must weigh way more! Let's guess forty pounds!" But Priya's guess barely changed. "Kevin, how much does a sticker weigh?" she asked. Kevin held one up. It floated to the floor like a feather. "Almost nothing," Priya said. "The box is mostly clay blocks and paint jars. Even five times more stickers is a tiny bit of the weight." Lulu wrote: BIG CHANGE IN A TINY PART = SMALL CHANGE IN THE WHOLE.

Step 3 · Try the model question

Kevin discovered that the art box holds five times more stickers than the class had believed. Even so, Priya's estimate of the total weight of the box barely changed.

Which choice, if true, best resolves the apparent conflict?

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Feather Freight

A shipping company was accused of hiding cargo. Inspector Moss testified, "We found three times more feather pillows on the truck than the papers listed! Yet the company's weight report barely changed. Suspicious!" Mr. Whitfield adjusted his suspenders. "Your Honor, the truck also carried forty steel beams. Each beam weighs more than a thousand pillows. Tripling the pillows adds almost nothing to the total weight." He set a pillow on the scale. The needle hardly twitched. The judge chuckled. "So a big jump in a tiny part barely moves the whole. No mystery here." Moss looked at the pillow and sighed.

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 134, Section 3, Question 13 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

Write the two clashing facts in one line each: what grew, and what stayed the same. Ask what would make both true at once. Look for an answer that shows the thing that grew is only a small slice of the total. Test each choice with the Handshake Test: it must explain why the total held steady despite the growth, not just comment on one side.