Reading Comprehension · Humanities
PrepTest 156 · Section 3 · Passage 3
Questions 14–21
Before you start
Open PrepTest 156, Section 3 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 14–21, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- P1: introduces the common account of how a new style began and quotes its harsh labels for the style that came before
- P2: compares that account to a parallel theory from another field, in which pent-up pressure causes a sudden break
- P3: uses the account's own wording to reveal whom it really blames, then lays out the storyline it implies
- P4: the author objects that the account is poor history and offers a corrected picture of the originators' motives
Step 2 · The kid passage
The Real Story of Shadow Ball
Most write-ups of how Shadow Ball began (the recess game Priya, Owen and Nadia invented last fall) give prizes a quiet but big part. By then, these stories say, recess had hit a wall. Kickball had become "a worn-out sock," "a merry-go-round to nowhere," "a sticker-chart rut."
Those phrases echo the craft club's own history. That history says crayon drawing went stale because nobody pushed crayons past the same old tricks, until a painting craze burst out. The recess stories hint at the same thing: players never stretched kickball's rules in the ways the game itself was pointing, so pressure built until a brand new game exploded.
But "sticker-chart rut" shows who these writers truly blame: the PTA's sticker prizes. Long after kickball got dull, the stories say, stickers kept kids playing it with no good reason left. Shadow Ball cleared the jam. In this telling, recess games slowly dropped their prizes, and Shadow Ball finished the job, a pure game at last.
That tidy tale may suit today's recess chatter, but it is shaky history. It pretends games are born in a perfect world, when prizes and trades run through every corner of recess. For Priya, Owen and Nadia, the sticker system was not a cage to escape. It was how any game got a field, a ball and players. They were not running away from prizes. They wanted a new spot inside the prize system, one that gave them their own rules and some credit.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Banner-Choked Sky
A town history claimed the kite makers founded their new festival to flee the sponsors' banners. The kite makers' grandkids sued over the book. Mr. Whitfield tugged his suspenders and read the author's own words aloud: "a banner-choked sky," "a sponsor-made swamp." "Your Honor, these phrases tell us whom the writer blames before any proof shows up." Then he held up old letters. "The kite makers asked the sponsors for their own booth, their own name on the poster, and their own rules for the contest. They were not escaping the sponsors. They wanted a better seat at the table." The author's lawyer frowned. "Our version is prettier." "Prettier," said Mr. Whitfield, "but not history." The judge nodded slowly.