Reading Comprehension · Humanities
PrepTest 148 · Section 2 · Passage 1
Questions 1–6
Before you start
Open PrepTest 148, Section 2 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 1–6, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- P1: introduces the older, dominant view the new theory pushes against, admits its first-glance appeal with a question, then raises an objection through a troubling hypothetical
- P2: asks what should replace the old view and states the core move of the new theory
- P3: asks a follow-up question and answers it with a simple everyday illustration
- P4: generalizes the illustration into a full thought experiment
- P5: draws out a consequence of the thought experiment and ends with the author's own reservation about it
Step 2 · The kid passage
Priya's Mystery Seat
For years, Ms. Rivera's class settled every recess question by majority vote. It seems perfect: what could be better than giving the most kids the most fun? But the vote has a strange side. Suppose twenty kids would enjoy tag more if Kevin always had to be 'it.' Then the vote keeps Kevin 'it' forever and calls that fine. Lulu wrote: 'Nothing stops the many from stomping on the few.'
Without the vote, how do we know what is fair? Priya had a sharp idea. Kids will never agree on which game is best, but they can agree on a fair way to make rules. Whatever comes out of a fair way is fair.
But what is a fair way? Priya's example: Owen sorts a box of stickers into piles without knowing which pile he will get. He makes them even so he cannot get the worst one, and everyone calls that fair.
Priya stretches this into a pretend game, the Mystery Seat. You help write class rules without knowing if you will be fast or slow, tall or short, new or old. Since you could be anyone, you write rules where nobody gets left out.
Priya says every kid, whatever game they love, needs basics: a turn, a spot on the field, and a ball to touch. So everyone in the Mystery Seat agrees each kid gets at least some of each. The trouble, I think, is that some turns must then be taken from kids who have plenty.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Fence Lines
Three neighbors fought over one big backyard garden. Mr. Whitfield snapped his suspenders. 'Your Honor, my client drew the fence lines before anyone knew which plot would be theirs. She could not rig it, so she made the plots match. A fair method, a fair result.' Judge Moreno nodded. 'Clever. Nobody can cheat a lottery they have not seen yet.' The other lawyer stood up. 'But her rule also says every neighbor gets a minimum of sunny ground. One neighbor already had a sunny corner, and now part of it goes to someone else.' The judge tapped her pen. 'So the method is brilliant, and the price is real. I can admire the first and still worry about the second.'