Reading Comprehension · Law
PrepTest 155 · Section 3 · Passage 2
Questions 8–15
Before you start
Open PrepTest 155, Section 3 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 8–15, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- P1: gives background on a growing shared problem and explains why a body created a framework for agreements
- P2: describes what the framework is meant to do and the broad principles it lays down
- P3: grants the framework some credit, then states the author's criticism and gives an example of the risk it ignores
- P4: explains why the framework's approach fails under that risk and proposes remedies
Step 2 · The kid passage
The Recess Ball Rules
Recess balls are fast becoming the most precious thing at Hilltop Elementary. Classes keep growing, new games keep popping up, and the ball bin keeps shrinking. Fights over balls are getting more likely. So the three fourth-grade classes saw they needed shared rules for the one bin they all use. That need led the student council to write a recipe for sharing deals.
The council's Ball Guide tries to write down habits kids already follow, the ones found in Ms. Rivera's old playground rulings and in what classes do every day. The Guide is not a deal itself. It is a bundle of guidelines classes use when writing their own deals. It says every deal should follow three broad ideas: one class's play must not seriously hurt another class, each share must be fair and sensible, and everyone must take care of the balls.
The Guide is a real step forward, but it falls short: it has no good way to handle changes down the road. One big danger is the school budget. If it shrinks, fewer new balls arrive while old ones go flat.
Deals that hand each class a set number of balls, counted from what it plays with today, as the Guide suggests, cannot bend when the bin suddenly holds fewer. Classes would have no way to cope. Sticking to the numbers would unfairly reward the class that plays the most. A better deal could give each class a fraction of the bin, like one third. Deals could also include a backup plan saying ahead of time how a smaller bin gets split.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Oven Hours Case
Three bakers shared one big oven. Their contract gave each baker a fixed four hours a day. Then the power company cut the oven's daily hours from twelve to six.
"Your Honor," said attorney Mabel Quint, "the contract is a fine contract. It is fair, it protects everyone's bread, and it keeps one baker from burning another's batch."
"But?" asked Judge Ortiz.
"But it counts hours as if the oven will always run twelve. Now the first baker in line takes four hours, the second gets two, and the third gets nothing. The biggest user wins by default."
"What would you write instead?"
"Give each baker one third of whatever hours exist. And add a plan for short days, decided before the next cut."
The judge smiled. "Good rules, better math."