Logical Reasoning · Paradox
PrepTest 145 · Section 2 · Question 1
Phase 1 (your first ~400 questions): read the guidance, then answer. No clock.
Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first
- “surprisingly”
- “although”
- “would replace”
Playground logic
Lulu hates bumps and bruises, yet she votes for kickball even though kickball gives more bumps than chess. The handshake answer: kickball would push out dodgeball, which gives way more bumps. Both facts shake hands, and nothing is left weird.
Step 2 · The kid story
Lulu Votes for Bumps?
Ms. Rivera announced that recess would get one new activity: either a chess club or a kickball league. Kickball means skinned knees. Chess means, at worst, a sore brain. Lulu, keeper of the class first-aid clipboard, raised her hand and voted for kickball. Marcus gasped. "Lulu! Kickball causes about three times as many bumps as chess. You hate bumps!" Lulu calmly flipped her clipboard. "Kickball would take over the big field," she said. "That is where dodgeball happens right now. Dodgeball is a bruise factory. If kickball replaces dodgeball, total bumps go way down. Chess would just sit in the corner while dodgeball keeps on bruising." Priya sipped her juice box and nodded. "So the bump-hater picks the bumpy game. Makes perfect sense now."
Step 3 · Try the model question
Recess will add either a chess club or a kickball league. Kickball causes about three times as many bumps as chess. Even so, Lulu, who tracks every playground injury, strongly favors kickball.
Which choice, if correct, best clears up why Lulu's vote makes sense?
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Noisy Neighbor's Choice
Judge Patel frowned. "Ms. Delgado, you complain constantly about noise. Yet you asked the town to approve the loud bowling alley over the quiet library annex?" Mr. Whitfield snapped his suspenders. "Your Honor, the bowling alley would go into the building where the all-night drum school operates now. The drum school is far louder than any bowling alley." He tapped the lease. "If the annex goes in, it uses an empty lot, and the drums keep pounding. If the bowling alley goes in, the drums leave." The judge set down her pen. "So the louder choice makes the street quieter overall. Request makes sense. Approved."
Step 5 · Work the real question
Open PrepTest 145, Section 2, Question 1 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.
Your answer
How to apply it
Name the surprise in one line: the group backs the option that looks worse on the thing they care about. Then test each answer with the Handshake Test: does it make both facts true at once? Favor an answer that changes what the option is really being compared to, such as what it would replace. Skip answers that only talk about the other option, that are about opinions, or that leave the 'worse' fact still unexplained.