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Reading Comprehension · Meaning in Context

PrepTest 145 · Section 1 · Question 21

Phase 1 (your first ~400 questions): read the guidance, then answer. No clock.

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type
Meaning in Context
The one idea it tests
A word in quotation marks is often a picture; ask what feature of the picture the author wants you to notice.
The basic logic
Read the sentence around the quoted word. Ask what that everyday word usually means and which part of that meaning fits the process described.
Tiny words that decide it
  • “quotation marks”
  • “like”
  • “a sort of”

Playground logic

The kid passage calls the slip a "smudge" because it happens while plays are being copied from the chalkboard to the notebook. The picture says: copying went a little wrong.

Step 2 · The kid passage

This question belongs to Passage 4 (Questions 20–27). Read its kid passage and structure guide first: The Rulebook That Learns →

Step 3 · Try the model question

Why does the kid passage call the slip a "smudge"?

Choices

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 145, Section 1, Question 21 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

Open Question 21 in your official copy and answer it first.

Locate the quoted word and read a sentence before and after it. Ask what the ordinary word suggests, then which part of that suggestion matches the process the sentence describes. Choose the answer that names that matching feature. Reject answers that read the word too literally, that add a judgment the author never makes, or that reverse the process.