Logical Reasoning · Paradox

PrepTest 142 · Section 2 · Question 12

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

Two parts of one thing show up at very different rates; a difference in how well each part survives shakes hands with both facts.

The basic logic

One fact: part X is found everywhere. Other fact: part Y of the same thing is rare. Look for a difference between X and Y themselves, such as what they are made of, so that both facts are true at once.

Tiny words that decide it

“yet”
“much less”
“rare”

Playground logic

Lulu finds plastic straws all over the sandbox but almost no juice boxes. Both come from the same snack. The answer that shakes hands with both facts is a difference in how long each part lasts in wet sand.

Step 2 · The kid story

The Sandbox Dig

Lulu's class was digging in the old sandbox for a science project. Straws everywhere! Bendy ones, striped ones, one shaped like a curly fry. Lulu counted forty-two. But whole juice boxes? Only two, and one was squished flat. "That's weird," said Marcus. "Every straw comes with a juice box. Where are the boxes? Maybe a juice-box thief!" Priya held up her own juice box and turned it around. "Look. The box is cardboard with a thin lining. The straw is hard plastic. Cardboard turns to mush after a few rainy weeks in the sand. Plastic just sits there for years." Lulu wrote: lots of straws, few boxes, both explained. Marcus lowered his magnifying glass. "So the thief is... rain?" "The thief is rain," said Priya, and slurped.

Step 3 · Try the model question

Lulu dug up dozens of plastic straws in the sandbox, yet almost no whole juice boxes, even though every straw came with a juice box.

Suppose each choice below were true. Which would best clear up Lulu's puzzle?

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Missing Umbrella Canopies

In a lost-property dispute, the city's lawyer said, "Our storage room holds hundreds of umbrella handles but only a handful of canopies. Someone has been stealing canopies!" Mr. Whitfield called a fabric expert. "Those canopies are thin cloth," she said. "The room floods each spring, and wet cloth rots within months. The handles are solid wood and steel. They outlast everything." The judge nodded. "So both parts arrived together, but only one part lasts. Nobody needs to be a thief." Mr. Whitfield bowed. The city's lawyer quietly put away a very long list of suspects.

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 142, Section 2, Question 12 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

State both facts in your own words and why they seem to clash. Ask what contrast between the two parts could make one common and the other rare. Look for a choice that names that difference and works on both sides at once. Cross off choices that treat both parts the same, that only explain one side, or that just restate how often things are found.