Reading Comprehension · Science
PrepTest 142 · Section 3 · Passage 3
Questions 17–21
Before you start
Open PrepTest 142, Section 3 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 17–21, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- Passage A, P1: takes a strong position, uses new findings to reject a dominant justification, and recommends a replacement goal
- Passage B, P1: notes a view that new findings keep supporting, then introduces a long-standing counterview
- Passage B, P2: lays out an earlier thinker's theory and the two-way distinction it draws, citing an even earlier thinker who agreed
- Passage B, P3: restates the theory's key principle and extends it by analogy to the newer findings
Step 2 · The kid passage
Two Takes on Biscuit and the Trash Can
Kid Passage A (Marcus): To a dog trainer, Biscuit is basically his nose. Nothing makes him act except what that nose picks up. New sniff research changes how our family should handle him. Our house rule only asks if Biscuit 'knows better.' But a dog can know better and still get tugged by smells he never picked. Biscuit may even think he is choosing to raid the trash, when sniff tests show the smell decided first. So we should stop scolding him as a 'bad dog' who earned it. We should only use rules that stop future messes, like a locking lid. If a scolding prevents nothing, skip it.
Kid Passage B (Lulu): Sniff research keeps explaining how a nose drives a dog, which backs the idea that everything a dog does is set ahead of time. Still, people have long said a dog can act freely anyway. Years ago Grandpa offered his 'leash theory,' and Aunt Rosa had made the same point decades before him. Grandpa split acts into two kinds. Own-wish acts start inside the dog. Pushed acts start outside, like a yanked leash, or come from being sick, like a tummy bug that makes him gobble grass. In an own-wish act, the dog could have done something else. In a pushed act, he could not. For Grandpa, a dog acts freely whenever nothing pushed him. Having a cause is fine; what counts is where the cause starts. Grandpa never talked about noses, but by the same idea, wishes from a healthy nose are not pushed, so they are free, even if they were set ahead of time.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Runaway Robot Mower
A robot mower rolled through Mrs. Lin's tulip bed. Her lawyer stood up. 'Your Honor, the mower just follows its code. Blaming it is silly. Let's build a fence so it never happens again.' Mr. Whitfield snapped his suspenders. 'Fences are fine. But having a cause does not mean the act came from outside. Ask where the cause started.' He called the neighbor's son. 'Did you grab the remote that morning?' 'Nope,' said the boy. 'And the mower wasn't broken,' added the repair witness. Mr. Whitfield nodded. 'Then nothing pushed it from outside, and nothing was wrong with it. It mowed on its own settings. Caused? Sure. Its own act? Also yes.' The judge wrote two columns on her notepad: pushed, and not pushed.