Logical Reasoning · Paradox

PrepTest 151 · Section 3 · Question 23

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 protected place can end up worse off if the protection also shelters something that harms what you meant to protect.

The basic logic

The surprise: the protected zone has fewer of the protected thing than unprotected zones. Find a fact that makes both sides shake hands: something the protection helps inside the zone, which in turn hurts the protected thing.

Tiny words that decide it

“protected”
“higher numbers”
“explain”

Playground logic

Lulu's fenced strawberry patch has fewer strawberries than the open patch. The handshake: the fence keeps Biscuit out, and Biscuit is the one who chases off the berry stealing squirrels.

Step 2 · The kid story

The Fence That Backfired

Grandpa built a fence around Lulu's strawberry patch to keep it safe. By June, the fenced patch had fewer strawberries than the wild patch by the shed, which had no fence at all. "That makes no sense!" said Tommy, hiding a strawberry in his pocket. Lulu checked her clipboard. "The fence keeps Biscuit out," she said. "Outside the fence, Biscuit runs around barking all day. The squirrels stay away." Priya nodded. "But inside the fence, the squirrels are safe from Biscuit. They eat the strawberries." Grandpa scratched his head. "So my fence protected the squirrels better than the berries." Biscuit wagged his tail, proud of a job nobody had asked him to do.

Step 3 · Try the model question

Grandpa fenced a strawberry patch to protect the berries. Yet the fenced patch now produces far fewer strawberries than a nearby unfenced patch.

Suppose each choice below is true. Which one best accounts for this surprising result?

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Pond Puzzle

A town created a protected pond where no one could fish, hoping to grow its frog population. A year later, the unprotected creek nearby had more frogs. "The protection failed!" said a lawyer. Mr. Whitfield hooked his thumbs in his suspenders. "Your Honor, with fishing banned, the big pike in the pond multiplied. Pike eat tadpoles. In the creek, people catch the pike." The judge smiled. "So the protection helped the very creature that eats the frogs?" "Precisely, Your Honor. Both facts fit together now." The lawyer put away his frog shaped notepad.

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 151, Section 3, Question 23 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

State the puzzle in two halves: the place built to protect has fewer of the protected thing than unprotected places. Look for a choice that explains both halves together. A strong answer names something that the protection also shelters, which hurts the protected thing. Reject answers that describe a matching pattern for something else, that show the thing moving around, or that make both places sound alike.