Reading comp PrepTest 140 · Section 4 · Question 13

Passage

Passage A is from a source published in 2004 and passage B is from a source published in 2007. Questions Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Legal Studies

Passage A
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • Background
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Details on online multiplayer games
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • A viewpoint is introduced
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Castronova - These games develop their own economies
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • A new layer
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Castronova - People would sell their accounts for real money on eBay
Paragraph 4
  • Paragraph note
    • Bringing it all together
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Castronova - Virtual currency has real-world value, and online "work" was creating value
Passage B
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • A split is introduced
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Some online games prohibit selling stuff for money; other encourage it
    • Example - IP rights
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • A question is posed
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Sell virtual stuff for real money? Taxed!
    • If someone gets virtual stuff but doesn't sell it, should it be taxed?
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • An answer is provided
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Most people - It shouldn't be
    • Author - I agree! Analogy - Fish that are caught are only taxed when sold
    • Author - Trading in-game items for others shouldn't be taxed
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Distinction is made to above answer, calling back to Paragraph 1
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Author - Selling virtual items for money should be taxed; games that commodify items should be taxed
Main Point:
Passage A - According to Castronova, multiplayer online games end up with a virtual economy that creates wealth with value in the real world

Passage B - Earning in-game items or trading them shouldn't be taxed, but selling them for real money or earning them in a game that intentionally commodifies them should be taxed

Key Lines:

Passage A:
Lines 7-9 - The phenomenon is described
Lines 13-16 - A new level to the phenomenon is described
Lines 18-19 - An implication of the phenomenon is described

Passage B:
Lines 26-29 - A distinction is made
Lines 32-36 - Questions are asked
Lines 44-45 - The Author's answer is presented
Lines 52-56 - An exception/distinction is made to the answer

Meta-Structure - Relationship Between Passages
Phenomenon/Implication and Question/Answer - Passage A (excitedly) describes a phenomenon. Likely, the writers of the LSAT assumed that this topic was a bit outside of most people's experience, and so they felt the need to highlight the situation before including an argument. And that argument features in Passage B, where the economy in online games described in Passage A is then subjected to a question—should these things be taxed?

So the two passages are strongly related. Passage A describes a phenomenon, and Passage B asks a question about how that phenomenon should be treated.

Last Thoughts:
Note how most of our notations on Passage A are about what is being described. While it's filtered through a specific viewpoint—Castronova's—it's largely describing an online economy that creates goods for real-world sale. That said, the language used is definitely more on the positive side—down to the punctuation (exclamation marks).

Also, note that Passage B has a callback to the original distinction when it draws another distinction in the last paragraph. When it kicked off, it talked about games that prohibit real-world trade in virtual items versus those that encourage it by providing IP rights to those goods. The last paragraph is about games that are "intentionally commodified," which is referring to that latter set of games.

Question prompt

Based on passage B, 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

Answer choices

  1. A
    The game allows selling Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 26-28; Line 55) Passage B talks about a real-world trade in virtual items, and in-world sales for virtual currency. Neither of those is about the sale of real items.
  2. B
    The game allows players Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. (Line 5) Passage A is the only one that talks about avatars.
  3. C
    Players of the game Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. (Line 25) Passage A talks about the creation of wealth, but even then it doesn't state that there's a positive relationship between time played and wealth created.
  4. D
    Players of the game Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Must Be True

    Strategy Overview:
    Review the line in question in context and any other areas that refer to the same concept, then find an answer that matches up with those details

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    This is a tricky question, and we'll see why in a second!

    First, though, we should head straight to line 54. There, we see that the "games that are intentionally commodified" have in-world sales for virtual currency and should be taxed. So those are two details that we can look for in the answers.

    However, these games are also referenced earlier in the passage! Passage B's first paragraph drew a distinction between games that prohibit the real-world trade in virtual items, while others "encourage it" (Lines 2-3). Those latter games are the ones that "intentionally commodif[y]" these virtual items. And in the first paragraph, we learn that one way they do this is to give their players IP rights in virtual creations. So that's another potential answer.

    Answer Explanation:
    (Lines 27-29) This is a tricky answer! The last paragraph talks about games that are intentionally commodified, but that calls back to the distinction made in the first paragraph between games that don't allow for real-world trade in virtual items and those that do. The latter would count as being intentionally commodified, since they're intentionally making virtual items commodities (items that can be bought and sold). And one way those games intentionally commodify is by granting IP rights to players of their games.

    Key Takeaway:
    When a question cites a line to refer to a concept, that concept might show up in other parts of the passage—even prior sections. Make sure you reflect on whether that concept has shown up elsewhere so that you can use those sections to help anticipate answers, as well.
  5. E
    Players of the game Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. There's no discussion in either passage of converting different virtual currencies—just selling virtual items for virtual currencies (and those items for real-world currencies).

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 39%
  2. B 3%
  3. C 7%
  4. D Credited 30%
  5. E 22%

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