Reading Comprehension · Humanities
PrepTest 154 · Section 3 · Passage 2
Questions 7–13
Before you start
Open PrepTest 154, Section 3 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 7–13, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- Passage A, P1: states a problem with a kind of writing and concludes that some falsehood is required
- Passage A, P2: draws a distinction between two kinds of inaccuracy and rejects a simple good/bad rule
- Passage A, P3: adds limits on the acceptable kind and offers a famous writer as a model
- Passage B, P1: the author describes a personal experience and poses a question
- Passage B, P2: gives a qualified answer to that question
- Passage B, P3: concludes that some falsehood is all but unavoidable in the author's own genre, with a reason
- Passage B, P4: admits discomfort with the position, defends it anyway, and ends with a middle-ground view
Step 2 · The kid passage
Two Cooks, One Problem
Nadia's view: Remaking an old family recipe is risky. Some old ingredients aren't sold anymore, and nobody wants lard crust today. When the card says "some spice," you must guess, or the dish stays flat. So a good remake needs changes on purpose. But a planned change differs from an accident. A planned change has a reason; an accident, like grabbing salt for sugar, is often impossible to excuse. So "exact is always better" is the wrong rule. Still, a change can overreach or stick out; a good one is quiet and believable. Chef Bellamy, the famous TV cook, is my model: she swaps ingredients on purpose, and her dishes still taste like memories.
Priya's view: I remake snacks from my own childhood, and my memory often fails. I remember Aunt Rosa's lemon bars as pink. She says they were yellow. Yet part of me still tastes the pink ones, and they feel more real. So which is the real taste? When the true recipe misses the feeling, I must pick. A strong memory isn't automatically right, but it holds a feeling-truth. Changes are nearly unavoidable when you cook memories. My eaters want to taste my childhood, not a lab copy, unlike a science fair judge, who needs exactness first. Leaving the pink out might fool them more than putting it in. I admit this sounds shaky, even unfair, and I don't love it. Still, memory cooking sits between copying and inventing, and each cook draws the line somewhere different.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Not-Quite-Exact Fire Engine
The town museum was sued because its replica of an old fire engine was not exact. "Your Honor," said restorer Ms. Delgado, "the original bolts are not made anymore, so I used modern ones on purpose. Without them the engine would fall apart. That is a choice, not a goof." Then a second witness, an old firefighter, spoke. "I built a model of the engine from memory. I painted the bell gold, though photos show silver. To me it shone gold every morning. Kids who see my model want to feel what I felt, not read a parts list." Mr. Whitfield summed up: "Two different jobs, Your Honor, same lesson: a faithful copy sometimes needs a careful change."