Reading Comprehension · Law
PrepTest 154 · Section 3 · Passage 4
Questions 21–27
Before you start
Open PrepTest 154, Section 3 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 21–27, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- P1: describes what a group of experts usually focuses on and names two ideas that are often counted as established
- P2: states a test the experts themselves accept, then argues that the two ideas fail that test, with support from common experience
- P3: contrasts what people say with what they do, notes the experts make the same slip, and draws the author's conclusion about how the ideas should be classified
- P4: concludes that the experts' approach is misdirected, proposes a different focus, and argues for its benefits
Step 2 · The kid passage
The Unwritten Rules of Recess
The fifth-grade Recess Rule Club spends its meetings trying to pin down which unwritten rules count as true "playground customs." Two rules are often called settled customs. One is the no-hogging rule: nobody should keep a swing so long that others never get a turn. The other is its close cousin, the heads-up rule: kids should take care not to block the slide.
The club agrees on a test: a rule is a real custom only if kids actually follow it, not merely say it sounds nice. But plenty of so-called customs, including both of these, fail that test. Nobody has done a careful count, yet anyone watching recess sees swings hogged every day and kids almost never doing anything about it.
Kids hardly ever follow these rules, but they all claim to believe in them. Likewise, the club says it studies what kids do, yet its debates are almost always about what kids say. Really, these rules are yardsticks kids use to defend themselves and scold others. So they are not true customs; they are more like a wish list.
That means members hoping customs will give the recess monitor a solid basis for ruling on fights are wasting their time, especially since most swing fights are now settled by kids' deals and swap schedules, not by the monitor. The club should study how saying these rules out loud helps kids strike deals. That would lead to schedules that keep everyone behaving.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Neighborly Fence Rule
In an imaginary county court, Mr. Whitfield faced a lawyer who insisted that a "neighborly fence rule" was an old local custom. "Everyone agrees fences should never block a neighbor's sunlight," she said. Mr. Whitfield tugged his suspenders. "Everyone says so, yes. But walk down any street. Fences block sunlight everywhere, and nobody ever fixes them. A custom is what people do, not what they praise." The judge frowned. "So this rule is more of a hope than a habit?" "Exactly, Your Honor. And these neighbors already worked out a written deal last spring. Let us enforce the deal they made, not a custom that does not exist." The judge agreed.