Reading Comprehension · Science
PrepTest 156 · Section 3 · Passage 2
Questions 6–13
Before you start
Open PrepTest 156, Section 3 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 6–13, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- Passage A, P1: lays out two extreme views and places the writer near one of them
- Passage A, P2: notes that tests found nothing, rejects the doubters' conclusion, and offers a cautious hypothesis
- Passage A, P3: backs the hypothesis with careful but untested evidence and explains why tests would miss the effect
- Passage A, P4: offers an analogy from the writer's own field
- Passage B: a reply that mocks the first passage, insists only controlled tests count, cites negative results, and rejects the analogy
Step 2 · The kid passage
Does Biscuit Sing?
Passage A (Nadia): Kids hold two far-apart views about how we know things. The Test-Only view says anything worth knowing, even who makes a good friend, can be settled by a test in the science corner. The Many-Ways view says tests are just one way of knowing among many. Most kids sit somewhere in between. Kids who doubt that Biscuit can sing usually sit near the Test-Only end. I sit near the Many-Ways end. Every time we pointed a camera at Biscuit and waited, he stayed silent. Marcus says that proves Biscuit cannot sing. I disagree, since I am not a Test-Only kid. Biscuit might sing and still be impossible to catch in a test. That is only a guess, but a reasonable one. Grandpa's notebook backs it up. He wrote down each neighbor's report right away, carefully. These are stories, not test results. But they all agree: Biscuit sings only when he is lonely and the house is empty. Five kids and a camera staring at him is the opposite of lonely. In coin collecting we have the two-face rule: both faces of a coin are real, but a coin lying on a table shows only one. Maybe singing and testing work the same way.
Passage B (Marcus): Nadia's plea for Biscuit's singing is silly. She is not a Test-Only kid, and a few notebook stories have convinced her that Biscuit sings when he is lonely, except whenever anyone points a camera, when the song magically vanishes. A kid as smart as Nadia should know that a pile of stories is no science fair project. The only way to check a story is a fair test in the science corner. We tested Biscuit five times. Result: no song. Nadia knows her idea clashes with her own science, so she reaches for her two-face rule. Sorry, that rule is for coins, not dogs. Either Biscuit sings or he does not. Our tests show he does not, and Grandpa's notebook will not change that.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Shy Bloom
A gardener entered her flower in the county contest, swearing it blooms only in total darkness. A rival sued, calling the entry a fib. The rival's lawyer smirked. "Your Honor, this flower opens beautifully, except whenever anyone shines a light on it, when the bloom mysteriously folds up. We checked it with lamps ten times. Nothing. Either it blooms or it doesn't." Mr. Whitfield rose. "My client never said it surely blooms. She said it might. Her neighbors wrote down what they saw by moonlight, right away and in detail. A lamp test cannot see a flower that only opens without lamps." The judge sighed. "So the real question is whether it could bloom at all. And one of you thinks only lamp tests count."