Reading Comprehension · Humanities
PrepTest 143 · Section 2 · Passage 3
Questions 15–20
Before you start
Open PrepTest 143, Section 2 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 15–20, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- Passage A, P1: opens with a respected figure's warning against answering a wrong with the same wrong
- Passage A, P2: presents the popular opposing view and its appeal to fairness, backed by an analogy
- Passage A, P3: splits the debate into two separate questions
- Passage A, P4: tests the split with a single harmless case and concludes that losing a claim is not the same as giving a reason
- Passage B, P1: lays out a theory that wrongdoers, as reasoning beings, authorize the same treatment of themselves
- Passage B, P2: rejects a tempting stronger conclusion by showing its unreasonable result, then settles on a weaker one
Step 2 · The kid passage
Two Essays on Cutting the Cutter
Essay A (Lulu): Grandpa says fixing a cut in line by cutting back is like mopping spilled paint with more paint. Still, many kids think a cutter has it coming. It feels fair: he tipped the line out of balance, so cutting him tips it back. Just as a ball-grabber loses his say over who gets the ball next, a cutter loses his right to a fair turn. But two questions hide here. Does a cutter deserve a fair turn as much as a patient kid? And is cutting a cutter more okay than cutting anyone else? Take Kevin. He cuts daily, lost in dinosaur daydreams, and never hurts anyone. He could hardly grumble if cut. Yet his habit is not enough reason to cut him, because it would teach the whole line that the rule is optional. If cutting cutters were always fine, recess would turn into a shoving match.
Essay B (Priya): The Permission Slip idea says a kid who chooses to break a line rule quietly signs a slip allowing the same treatment back. So cutting a cutter treats him as a real chooser. Someone might decide we must cut every cutter. That goes too far: we would then have to copy everything anyone does, even sneezing or sharing grapes. The slip gives permission, not orders. A chooser cannot fairly object, and with no fair objection, the kids who cut him were within their rights.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Ladder Borrowed Back
Mr. Whitfield snapped his suspenders. "Your Honor, Mr. Pell took my client's ladder without asking. So my client took Mr. Pell's ladder without asking. By his own choice, Mr. Pell gave permission!" Judge Amara nodded slowly. "Maybe Mr. Pell cannot complain. But does that mean your client had to take it? Or even should?" Mr. Whitfield blinked. "Well, he was allowed." "Allowed is not required," said the judge. "And if every neighbor grabs back what was grabbed, nobody on Elm Lane will leave a ladder out again. That cost matters too." She tapped her gavel. "No damages for Mr. Pell. But a lecture for everybody."