Logical Reasoning · Paradox

PrepTest 151 · Section 2 · Question 11

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

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type

Paradox

The one idea it tests

A plan that looks like it works against its own goal can make sense if the plan sets off a process that delivers the goal later.

The basic logic

Two facts shake hands badly: the goal is variety, but the method uses only one thing. Look for a fact that lets both be true at once, usually a chain where the one thing attracts or starts something else that brings in the variety.

Tiny words that decide it

“but”
“goal”
“single”

Playground logic

Ms. Rivera wants a reading corner full of many kinds of books, yet she stocks it with only one comic series. The handshake: that one popular series pulls kids in, and the kids bring and swap their own different books, so one ingredient grows into many.

Step 2 · The kid story

One Comic to Rule the Reading Corner

Ms. Rivera announced her goal: a reading corner bursting with every kind of book, mysteries, poems, joke books, books about volcanoes. Then she put out exactly one thing: a stack of a single goofy comic series about a skateboarding hamster. Marcus threw up his hands. "Detective verdict: she's doing it wrong! You want lots of kinds, so you put out lots of kinds!" Priya calmly sipped her juice box. "Watch for a week." By Wednesday the corner was packed. Kids came for the hamster, then started leaving their own books from home on the shelf to swap. Owen added a dinosaur atlas (Kevin cheered). Nadia added a poetry book. Lulu logged twelve new kinds on her clipboard. Marcus scratched his head. The one comic was the bait, not the menu.

Step 3 · Try the model question

Ms. Rivera wants her reading corner to hold many different kinds of books. Yet some experienced teachers start such a corner by stocking only one popular comic series.

Which fact, if true, would best show how both of those statements can make sense together?

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Single Seed Fund

Judge Okafor frowned at the bank's lawyer. "Your bank promised customers a wide mix of investments. Then you put everyone's first deposits into one single fund. Explain." Mr. Whitfield, for the bank, tugged his suspenders. "Your Honor, that one fund pays out fast. Each payout is automatically split by the customer into dozens of different investments. Within a year, every account holds a broad mix." The judge tapped her pen. "So the single fund is not the destination. It is the engine that builds the mix." "Precisely, Your Honor." "Then the promise and the method are not at odds." She closed the file. "Case dismissed."

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 151, Section 2, Question 11 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

State the two facts that seem to clash: the stated goal and the method that seems to work against it. Ask what would let a single starting thing end in many things. For each choice, run the Handshake Test: if true, do both facts now fit? Reject Half-Hugs that touch only one side, and Bystanders. The winner usually describes a process that the method starts and that produces the goal.