Reading Comprehension · Social Science
PrepTest 154 · Section 3 · Passage 1
Questions 1–6
Before you start
Open PrepTest 154, Section 3 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 subject, reports the usual explanation scholars give, then the author rejects it and names a different key factor
- P2: explains why ordinary methods could not have worked, then describes how the author's factor worked and how it led to centralized control
- P3: extends the author's factor to everyday social life and shows it also explains the very thing the usual view gave credit to
Step 2 · The kid passage
The Secret of the Maple Street Club
The Maple Street Club was our town's biggest kids' club. Its fort, behind a tall fence, still stands. At its peak it owned glow pens from a shop across the river and comics from a store two neighborhoods over. Most kids say the club got rich because it controlled the rare sticker swap. I think the real secret was its bike system.
By its best summer the club had over forty members. That was huge, because the usual way clubs fed themselves, sharing from lunchboxes, only worked for small groups that kept drifting apart. No wagon could haul snacks for forty, and snacks went stale fast. So the club ran a bike fleet that let members fetch snacks from stands all over the neighborhood. In fall the bikes sat in the sunny lot; in spring they moved to Grandpa's garage, because spring mud rusted the chains. That took planning and teamwork, so the captains ended up owning every bike.
Regular members borrowed a bike as a favor from the captains. Since you needed a bike to join the Saturday games, the captains had a say in every kid's weekend. The bikes also explain the sticker swap. Some stickers came free in cereal boxes. But rare stickers meant long, tiring rides to far-off shops. The captains handed out bike loans as a reward to get kids to make those trips.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Thriving Band
"Your Honor," said the rival lawyer, "the Hilltop Marching Band won every trophy because of its shiny brass trumpets." Mr. Whitfield snapped his suspenders. "Shiny trumpets help, but they are not the secret. Look at the bus. Most bands this size fall apart, because parents cannot drive sixty kids to faraway contests. Hilltop's director owns one big bus and decides who rides. Riding is how you get into the band at all, so the director's say reaches every family. And who polished those famous trumpets on long Saturday afternoons? Kids who earned a front seat on that bus." The judge nodded. "So the bus explains the band's size, its rules, and even the trumpets." Mr. Whitfield bowed. "Follow the bus, Your Honor."