Reading Comprehension · Science
PrepTest 147 · Section 3 · Passage 3
Questions 14–21
Before you start
Open PrepTest 147, Section 3 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 14–21, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- P1: states a duty, shows where it gets tricky, and presents the traditional standard
- P2: names that standard and argues it is too strict, with its practical consequence
- P3: proposes a looser replacement standard and gives a purpose that motivates it
- P4: explains what makes the replacement possible and what it requires of individuals
Step 2 · The kid passage
The Even-Scale Rule Is Too Tight
Youth soccer coaches have a duty: always run the best drill they know. Usually that is easy. But when the league tests two drills against each other, one group of kids must skip one drill. For years, most coaches and parents agreed on a rule: a coach who helps run a drill test must have no favorite at all. I call this the Pocket Balance rule.
Sadly, Pocket Balance asks too much. It holds only when a coach thinks the case for each drill weighs exactly the same, and almost nobody ever thinks that. Coaches nearly always lean a little, sometimes on a gut feeling, sometimes after adding up what they have seen. Even a coach who starts out perfectly level gets tipped by one good Saturday. So under Pocket Balance, hardly any drill test could start, and fewer still would ever finish.
I propose a better rule, which I call League Balance. It keeps the test fair without choking it. Why do we run drill tests at all? Often it is to settle a real split in the coaching circle: the old drill is Zigzags, but new hints say Ladders might work better, and good coaches honestly read the hints differently.
That honest split is exactly what makes League Balance possible. A coach in the test may have a strong favorite. That does not disqualify her. She only has to admit that plenty of respected coaches across the league prefer the other drill.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Pancake Referee
In the fictional case of the Pancake Bake-Off, a lawyer argued that Judge Maple could not referee a test of two pancake flips because she secretly liked the double flip. Mr. Whitfield snapped his suspenders. "Your Honor, if we demand a referee with zero leanings, we will never find one, and the first flipped pancake would tip her anyway. The real point of this test is that the town's cooks are honestly split. As long as the referee admits that half the town's cooks favor the single flip, her private hunch is no bar." The judge nodded. "A perfectly empty head is not the standard. Honest disagreement in the field is." Biscuit, under the table, voted for both flips.