VIPLSATCracking LSAT makes you a VIP.

Reading Comprehension · Law

PrepTest 139 · Section 2 · Passage 4

Questions 21–27

Before you start

Open PrepTest 139, Section 2 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 21–27, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.

Structure guide

  1. P1: introduces a report and its proposal, and defines the key arrangement
  2. P2: narrows the proposal to one kind, states its purpose, and lists two conditions on its use
  3. P3: the author begins criticizing: the conditions would be burdensome to apply, with a reason why
  4. P4: the author adds a fairness objection, then gives the most important objection, backed by a list of benefits that apply to everyone

Step 2 · The kid passage

The Ribbon-Only Rule

In March, the Student Council released its thirty-page Spelling Bee report. Inside were ideas about "ribbon-only" deals for kid coaches. Under a ribbon-only deal, a speller pays the coach only if the speller wins a ribbon. Since the coach might work for nothing, these deals usually cost more.

Of several kinds, the council picked just one: the "bump-up" deal. If the speller wins, she pays the coach's normal price plus an agreed extra slice of that price. The goal is to stop coaches from grabbing too big a share of the prize tickets a winner earns, so the speller keeps a fair reward. Two conditions apply: a bump-up deal is allowed only after every other way to pay has been tried, and only if the coach is convinced the speller could not pay the normal price without a ribbon.

Sadly, a coach would then have to study not just spelling words but the speller's piggy bank and how many practice hours the job needs. That is hard, partly because the hours needed depend on things that can shift along the way, like which word lists get announced.

It is also unfair, shutting out kids whose allowance is locked in a savings account. Most important, the main reasons for these deals fit every speller. They let spellers get coaching without paying up front. They move the risk of winning nothing from the speller to the coach. And since both now want the same ribbon, coaches probably try harder.

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Piano Plan

The made-up town of Brookvale passed a rule: music stores may offer rent-to-own pianos, but only to families who prove they cannot pay cash, and only after every other plan fails. Mr. Whitfield, suspenders gleaming, stood for a store owner. "Your Honor, first, this makes my client play detective with every family's bank papers, and lesson costs keep changing. Second, it shuts out families whose money is tied up. Most important, the reasons rent-to-own exists, spreading the cost and sharing the risk, help every family, not just the poorest." Judge Okafor nodded. "So you lay out the rule, then you grade it." "Exactly, Your Honor." Lesson: explain-then-critique passages save their strongest punch for the line marked 'most important.'

Guidance for each question