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Reading Comprehension · Social Science

PrepTest 147 · Section 3 · Passage 4

Questions 22–27

Before you start

Open PrepTest 147, Section 3 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 22–27, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.

Structure guide

  1. Passage A, P1: reports that a proposal has been tried and works despite doubts
  2. Passage A, P2: presents an objection raised by the doubters
  3. Passage A, P3: rebuts the objection and adds a reason the change costs little
  4. Passage B, P1: corrects a common misunderstanding of the rival system
  5. Passage B, P2: gives a principle supporting that system
  6. Passage B, P3: uses a concession and a rhetorical question to predict a harmful result of the proposal

Step 2 · The kid passage

The Pizza Fund Debate

On Arcade Day every kid earns prize tickets and hands some to the class jar, which buys the end-of-year pizza.

Frankie's piece, "One Scoop for All." Room 5 first tried the One-Scoop Rule: you keep your first 10 tickets free, then give one out of every four after that. No chart, no exceptions. Three classes copied it. Doubters said it would never work. It works.

Now the same doubters say it is unfair, because big earners should hand over more of what they earn. Wrong. With a free amount plus one rate, you can tune how much big earners give. And under the old step chart, the rules were so tangled that big earners hid tickets in their sneakers using loopholes. So under One Scoop, big earners hand in about as much as before.

Sharon's piece, "Steps Are Fair." Many kids misunderstand the step chart. They think a big earner gives more out of every single ticket. Not true. Everyone gives the same share on the same layer of tickets; you only give more on the tickets above each line. Kids are treated the same.

But tickets are not all the same. Your first few buy the snack you need; extras are for fun. Even One-Scoop fans admit this: they keep the first 10 free. So why jump from giving nothing straight to the full rate? And the jar needs the same total. If small earners and big earners give less, middle earners will have to fill the gap.

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Reading Tent

In a fictional hearing at the Riverside Library, two lawyers fought over how to split the cost of a new reading tent. Ms. Barlow wanted every member to pay one simple share above a free first visit, and said the old sliding scale let rich members dodge through its fine print. Mr. Whitfield rose. "Your Honor, my colleague misreads the sliding scale: each member pays the same on each layer. And if the tent must cost the same, and the poorest and richest pay less, who pays more? The middle!" The judge peered over her glasses. "So you two agree the question is fairness, and you disagree about who ends up paying." Biscuit, sleeping on the law books, had no position.

Guidance for each question