Reading comp PrepTest 117 · Section 1 · Question 2

Passage

Questions 1-7  .        The Canadian Auto Workers' (CAW) Legal  . Services Plan, designed to give active and retired  . Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal Studies


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • New plan introduced; Adoption
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • New plan - CAW Prepaid legal services - Join plan, then pay lower legal fees (or free)
    • Options/Distinction - Plan lawyer (free), cooperating lawyer (free or fee), outside lawyer (fee + balance)
    • 45% eligible signed up; department store adopted plan

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Lawyers vs. Plan Directors
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Lawyers - Bad for profession; drives down overall fees in cities where it operates
    • Directors - Increase professional contact and referrals (3-4 per client that gets good service)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Author - Unlikely the plans will be good for lawyers or clients
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Established lawyers won’t sign up → Marketing for new lawyers → Clients get inexperienced lawyers → Clients less satisfied
    • Downward pressure on fees → Referrals won’t make up difference → Lawyers spend less time per case → Clients less satisfied

Main Point: While the CAW’s prepaid plan members appear happy with the service and the directors argue it’ll be good for lawyers and clients, in reality, the increased use of such plans won’t result in long-term client satisfaction or increased profits for law firms, as its directors argue.

Key Lines?

Lines 1-12 - The new plan is outlined

Lines 14-15 - People like it

Lines 20-22 - Lawyers criticize the plan

Lines 29-33 - Plan directors rebut that criticism

Lines 38-40 - The Author says the plan is bad

Meta-Structure?

Old Approach/New Approach - The entire passage is designed around describing (Paragraph 1), explaining the debate around (Paragraph 2), and reaching a final determination on (Paragraph 3) a new approach to legal services. The old approach to legal services saw each person individually hiring lawyers, the new prepaid plans have people enroll in a service that gives them no- or low-price legal services from lawyers who sign up for the plan. When a passage falls into the Old Approach/New Approach, the Author’s opinion of the new approach generally serves as the main point of the passage. Here, the Author’s opinion is stated in Paragraph 3 - she’s not a fan of them, believing that they won’t result in long-term client satisfaction or increased profits from law firms. In short, no one (except maybe the plan directors who are running the plan) will likely be happy with it over the long term. The main point should reflect that opinion.

Causality - Paragraph 3 sees the Author presenting a few causal chains to explain why she doesn’t believe the prepaid legal plans will result in positive outcomes for either clients or lawyers.

Last Thoughts?

This passage is relatively straight-forward as far as the content and structure is concerned, so let’s work to get through the questions quickly and free up some time for a harder passage later in the section.

Question prompt

The primary purpose of Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Legal

Strategy Overview

Review the main point and any primary meta-structures present in the passage, then find an answer reflecting them

Answer Anticipation

We identified this passage as falling into the Old Approach/New Approach Meta-Structure. In that passage, the Author discusses a new way of accomplishing some goal, and she generally states her opinion on it - often contrasting it with the old approach.In this case, she talks about a new way to provide legal services - through prepaid plans rather than by individuals hiring individual lawyers. These plans, however, are “unlikely” to result in long-term benefits to clients or lawyers. So while most of these passages have the Author presenting a new approach that she feels has merit, this passage has the Author arguing that a new way of doing something won’t achieve its goals in the long-term.Let’s find an answer stating that as the primary purpose of the passage.

Answer choices

  1. A
    compare and contrast legal Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Tempting! However, this answer fails to address that the Author states an opinion on legal plans - she does more than compare and contrast them.

  2. B
    explain the growing popularity Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 14-20) While the Author does state that the plans are popular and appear to be spreading, there’s no discussion of why this is the case. And that discussion happens in a small section of the passage. And the Author states an opinion on the plans. For all these reasons, this answer is wrong.

  3. C
    trace the effect of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Lines 24-26; Paragraph 3) The lawyers arguing against these plans cite statistics that support the view that the plans drive down the prices of legal services, and the Author explains how this could happen. However, she doesn’t “trace the effects” of legal plans on these prices - if anyone does that, it’s the lawyers, and they only cite broad conclusions. Additionally, this is a small part of the passage, not the primary purpose - the Author, if anything, uses that trend as support for her conclusion that lawyers and clients won’t be satisfied by these plans in the long run.

  4. D
    caution that increased use Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (D) (Lines 38-40) The Author’s opinion on these plans is that they’re “unlikely” to “result in long-term client satisfaction or in a substantial increase in profits for law firms.” That’s definitely a statement of caution about these plans, and this answer gets the details correct, so this is the right answer.

  5. E
    advocate reforms to legal Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) (Lines 38-40) The Author cautions against these legal plans, but she doesn’t offer any alternatives or any means to adopt them to make them better, so this answer choice is incorrect.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 3%
  2. B 2%
  3. C 6%
  4. D Credited 89%
  5. E 1%

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