Reading Comprehension · Humanities
PrepTest 139 · Section 3 · Passage 2
Questions 8–14
Before you start
Open PrepTest 139, Section 3 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 8–14, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- P1: opens with one artist who discovers an abandoned method and revives it, with her reason
- P2: gives a second artist and his playful fantasy about the method
- P3: steps back to name a broad trend, notes the ironic timing, and lists its range
- P4: explains why the old methods were dropped and why they now appeal, using the second artist's view as an illustration
- P5: draws a deeper conclusion about what motivates many people in the movement
Step 2 · The kid passage
The Dip Pen Comeback
When Nadia first saw an old dip pen, she loved its thick, shiny lines and could not believe nobody used it anymore, so she brought it back. Marker labels on her rock collection had looked flat. The dip pen's ink sat up on the card, almost like a bump. Owen had a different dream. He wants to tuck his inky letters into library books so someone finds them and thinks they are letters from long ago, from a time that never happened. Here is the funny part: the very week every desk got a shiny new tablet, the fifth grade started moving backward. Kids are cutting feather quills, stirring homemade ink, and pressing wax seals. Half the school has joined. Old pens are fussy and unpredictable. That is why kids love them, and also why everybody dropped them. Ballpoints came along that were cheaper, faster, and gave the same line every time. Only the fountain pen hung on, as a curiosity. Owen likes the surprises. Owen thinks time drains the meaning out of every letter until it becomes a lost thing, and readers fill it with their own feelings. So where an old scribe would have blotted away a smear, Owen keeps it, because it makes the page feel older. Maybe that explains the whole craze. Every messy page is one of a kind and shows the moment it was made. And handwritten notes feel close and personal in a way that a flood of texts never does.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Wobbly Kite
Mr. Whitfield called his witness, a kite maker named Ms. Tull. "Why split your bamboo by hand," he asked, "when a machine cuts perfect sticks?" "Because hand-split sticks bend a little differently every time," she said. "That wobble makes each kite fly with its own personality. I cannot control it, and I do not want to." The rival lawyer smirked. "Couldn't a machine just add fake wobbles?" Ms. Tull shook her head. "Every machine-made wobble I have seen flies like a copy. Fliers can always tell." Mr. Whitfield turned to the judge. "Your Honor, if fakes always give themselves away, my client's choice of the old way is not stubbornness. It is the only way to get the effect."