Reading comp PrepTest 149 · Section 2 · Question 20

Passage

Questions 13-20  .  . Passage A  .       Comedians are not amused when their jokes are  . stolen, and for that Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Legal Studies

Passage A
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • A problem facing stand-up comedians is discussed, along with the legal implications
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Problem - Joke stealing is rampant in the stand-up comedy world
    • Legal aspect - Copyright law is most relevant, but not used for two reasons
      • Expensive
      • Hurdles make a successful lawsuit uncertain
    • Copyright law doesn't provide practical protections
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • A paradox is introduced
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Traditional view - If something isn't legally protected, it won't be created
    • Reality - Comedians keep making up new jokes without legal protections
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • The paradox/question is resolved
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Social norms offer protections that the law doesn't
    • The norms have punishments - people won't work with/hire a joke stealer
Passage B
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • A problem facing chefs is introduced
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Problem - Recipes aren't protected by patents or copyrights, and while they're protected by trade secret laws, that's rarely done
    • Solution - social norms
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • A description of the social norms at play, and their legal analogues
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Patents - Chefs don't use the recipe of another chef, even if it's publicly available
    • Contract - Chefs don't pass on secret information that a creator reveals to them
    • Copyright - Credit the chefs who created a recipe
Main Point:
Passage A - Copyright law doesn't protect jokes, but social norms provide similar protections and allow comedians to create and protect their work.

Passage B - Social norms provide chefs with protections similar to patents, contracts, and copyright.

Key Lines:

Passage A:
Lines 13-15 - Sum up problem faced by comedians
Lines 20-23 - Question/paradox presented
Lines 24-26 - The answer/resolution to the paradox is stated

Passage B:
Lines 40-44 - Sum up problem faced by chefs
Lines 46-49 - Solution to this problem is presented, along with structure for rest of passage
Paragraph 2 - A very dense paragraph that goes into the solutions developed for the chefs' problem

Meta-Structure - Relationship Between Passages:
This is an interesting set of Comparative Passages that falls into a repeated but less frequent pattern—they discuss analogous situations. Here, the legal situation for comedians is analogous to that of chefs, in that both lack many formal legal protections. And in both cases, social norms are noted as providing the protections that the law fails to provide.

Each passage presents a bit of a Problem/Solution structure, in that they highlight a lack of legal protections and how the industry has adapted to provide protections. And the first passage presents a Paradox/Question—why do comedians keep making jokes if they're not protected?

Last Thoughts:
This should be an interesting set of questions since the similarities between the passages largely come down to analogies and legal terms!

Question prompt

Which one of the Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Question Type

Legal

Answer choices

  1. A
    There is no social Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 50-51) Passage B notes that the first social norm says that chefs can't copy recipes ""exactly."" What happens when a chef makes a similar dish is thus out of scope of that social norm and so doesn't affect the argument. There's no indication that such a dish should be prevented!
  2. B
    Chefs are significantly more Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Strengthen

    Strategy Overview:
    Reiterate the main point and main evidence in Passage B and find an answer that connects them

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    Strengthen questions in RC are no different than in LR, but they do tend to have answers that are a bit more straightforward or directly related to the argument.

    Here, the main point of Passage B is:

    Social norms provide chefs with protections similar to patents, contracts, and copyright.

    That was based on an analysis of three social norms and how they relate to these types of legal protections. So any answer that strengthens these connections or establishes that social norms are providing adequate protections will strengthen this argument.

    Answer Explanation:
    (Lines 56-59) The second norm deals with the sharing of requested information. If chefs don't share such information with people who have violated the social norms, then there are consequences for breaking these ""laws."" Much like in Passage A the enforcement of the norms is a key part of the argument, establishing in Passage B that there is enforcement would strengthen the argument that these social norms provide protections. This answer is therefore correct.

    Key Takeaway:
    Note that the correct answer here essentially established something for Passage B that Passage A relied on as a key part of its argument. When dealing with a Comparative Passage that has analogous arguments, information that shows up in only one of them might end up being presented for the other as part of a Strengthen answer. This is similar to how Strengthen questions featuring comparisons tend to work.
  3. C
    Recipes published in cookbooks Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. This answer deals with copyright law providing legal protections, but Passage B was about social norms providing protections.
  4. D
    The community of chefs Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. This answer is, in many ways, the negation of the correct answer. Knowing that the social norms can be enforced strengthens the argument that they provide protections in these two cases, so this answer stating that they can't be enforced weakens that argument.
  5. E
    In practice it is Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. Similar to (D), this answer says that enforcement of the norms would be difficult, so this answer also weakens the argument.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 36%
  2. B Credited 51%
  3. C 5%
  4. D 1%
  5. E 7%

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