Logical Reasoning · Paradox

PrepTest 151 · Section 3 · Question 8

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

Something needs a cause, the usual cause is missing, yet the effect is even stronger. Look for a different cause.

The basic logic

Both facts must stay true: the usual source is too far away, and the effect is still big. The fix is a second source that does the same job. Use the Handshake Test: the right answer lets both facts shake hands.

Tiny words that decide it

“yet”
“but”
“even”

Playground logic

Plants grow because of light. Tommy's plant gets window light. Lulu's plant sits in a dark closet far from any window, yet it grows taller. The handshake: Lulu has a lamp in the closet giving light another way.

Step 2 · The kid story

The Closet Plant

Ms. Rivera taught the class that plants grow because of light. Tommy put his bean plant on the sunny windowsill. Lulu put hers in the hall closet, way at the back, far from any window. Marcus laughed. "Lulu's plant is doomed. No window, no light, no growing." Two weeks later, Lulu's plant was twice as tall as Tommy's. Marcus's jaw dropped. "That's impossible!" Priya opened the closet door. A little lamp glowed on the shelf, plugged in and humming. "Lulu's plant has its own light," Priya said. "It never needed the window." Lulu checked her clipboard. "Lamp on twelve hours a day," she reported. Tommy looked at his window plant. "Can I borrow your closet?"

Step 3 · Try the model question

Plants grow because of light. Tommy's plant gets its light from a sunny window. Lulu's plant sits deep in a closet, far too far from any window to get light from it. Yet Lulu's plant grows much taller than Tommy's.

Which statement, if correct, best explains the situation described above?

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Case of the Warm Cabin

In a fictional mountain town, Judge Barros heard a dispute about a heating bill. The power company lawyer said, "Your Honor, cabins stay warm only with heat, and our power lines never reached this cabin. Yet it was the warmest on the mountain!" Mr. Whitfield smiled. "Your Honor, the cabin sits on a natural hot spring. Warm water flows right under the floor." The judge raised an eyebrow. "So heat still warms the cabin, and your lines still never reached it." Mr. Whitfield nodded. "Both facts stand. The heat just came from below."

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 151, Section 3, Question 8 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

List the facts that seem to clash. Notice what the passage says is the ultimate cause, and which usual source is ruled out. Ask: how can the effect still happen, even strongly, without that source? Look for an answer giving a different source of the same cause. Run the Handshake Test: both facts must stay true. Cross out answers about makeup, comparisons with other cases, or counts that do not supply a new source.