Reading comp PrepTest 156 · Section 1 · Question 15

Passage

 Traditionally, corporate bankruptcy law placed highest priority on the orderly discharge of debts; courts generally ordered failed businesses to pay Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic:
Legal Studies

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Old Approach/New Approach; arguments for old
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Old Approach: Bankruptcy's focus is repayment of creditors
    • New Approach: Bankruptcy's focus is restructuring to keep company in business
    • Jackson (Old Approach): Focus should be on repaying creditors as much as possible


Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Korobkin criticizes Jackson/Old Approach
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Korobkin: Old Approach fails to take other stakeholders into account (customers, employees, suppliers)
    • Korobkin: Old Approach prevents benefits of company


Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Korobkin: Principles for New Approach
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Korobkin: New Approach fair and acceptable
    • Principle 1, Inclusion: all affected individuals taken into account
    • Principle 2, Rational Planning Salvage potential: "rank" those affected and take care of most affected first


Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's opinion
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author: Korobkin/New Approach more equitable
    • Author - Significant weaknesses of Korobkin/New Approach
      • Creditors are put at higher risk, so they charge more for credit
      • Doesn't tell us how to "rank" how badly different groups affected


Main Point:

While Korobkin's modern approach to bankruptcy is more equitable than Jackson's traditional approach, it has significant weaknesses.



Key Lines (P(aragraph) X, S(entence) Y)?

P1, S1 - Old Approach
P1, S2 - New Approach
P1, S3 - Argument for Old Approach
P2, S1 - Old Approach criticized
P3, S1 - New Approach benefits
P3, S2 - One principle of New Approach
P3, S3 - Second principle of New Approach
P4, S1 - Author's opinion of New Approach (and comparison to Old Approach)



Meta-Structure?

Old Approach/New Approach: The opening two sentences of this passage present a traditional and modern approach to bankruptcy law, setting this up as an Old Approach/New Approach passage. The rest of the passage discusses the benefits and criticisms of these approaches, meaning this Meta-Structure defines the passage. When a passage falls into this Meta-Structure, the author's opinion of the New Approach is generally the main point. Here, that opinion is most clearly stated in P4, S1: the New Approach is more equitable than the Old Approach, but it has some significant weaknesses. (See Last Thoughts? for a bit more on this.)



Last Thoughts?

Check the first sentence of Paragraph 4 again — it's a bit trickier than it might first appear, for two reasons. First, it compares the Old Approach and New Approach, but only on equity. The second part of the sentence claims that the New Approach has significant drawbacks, but it doesn't say that these drawbacks are more significant than the Old Approach's drawbacks. Which brings us to our second point: this passage can feel like a Resolving a Debate passage, but the author doesn't resolve the debate as to which of the two approaches is better. The author argues the New Approach is more equitable than the Old Approach but the New Approach also says it has downsides. The author never concludes whether we should go with the Old Approach, the new one, or a hybrid approach. As such, the main point of this passage is the author's opinion of the New Approach, not a recommendation or endorsement of one of the two approaches.

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
    According to Korobkin, Jackson's Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    (P2, S1) This answer accurately summarizes one of Korobkin's opinions of the Old Approach, but it fails to capture the author's view on the two approaches. In fact, it doesn't even capture Korobkin's main point — that the modern approach to bankruptcy law is better than the old!
  2. B
    Korobkin's approach to protecting Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    Question Type:
    Main Point

    Strategy Overview:
    Reiterate the main point as we summarized it after reading the passage, then find the answer that best matches with it

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    The opening two sentences of this passage present a traditional and modern approach to bankruptcy law, setting this up as an Old Approach/New Approach passage. The rest of the passage discusses the benefits and criticisms of these approaches, meaning this Meta-Structure defines the passage.

    When a passage falls into this Meta-Structure, the author's opinion of the New Approach is generally the main point. Here, that opinion is most clearly stated in P4, S1: the New Approach is more equitable than the Old Approach, but it has some significant weaknesses. Let's find an answer reflecting that opinion.

    Answer Choice Explanation:
    (P4, S1) This answer captures the author's opinion of the New Approach to bankruptcy law, correctly paraphrasing the key line at the beginning of Paragraph 4. In an Old Approach/New Approach passage, the author's opinion of the New Approach is almost always the main point, which holds true here, making this the correct answer.

    Key Takeaway:
    Two takeaways here. First, note how many answers treat something said by Korobkin as the main point! When there's a debate in a passage, the main point can reflect those viewpoints. However, once the author weighs in, the author's view defines the main point. Second, note (E). There, the answer presents an opinion attributed to the author, but it goes too far. It's an important reminder to capture the exact opinion of the author — it would have been easy to see the criticism of the New Approach in the second half of P4, S1 and summarize it (incorrectly) as, "Author thinks New Approach bad." That's not the case. The author highlights a positive and a negative, but she never says which are more important or how the New Approach compares to the old one overall.

  3. C
    Korobkin opposes Jackson's conception Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    (Paragraph 3) This answer does capture a significant portion of Korobkin's argument, but it doesn't bring up the author's opinion of the two approaches. Without including the author, this does not capture the main point of the passage.
  4. D
    Korobkin argues that the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    (P2, S2) Another answer choice that accurately describes part of Korobkin's criticism of the Old Approach. However, Koborkin's view wasn't the main point of the passage — the author's view on the New Approach was.
  5. E
    Korobkin's vision of bankruptcy Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    (P4, S1) The author does establish that Korobkin's approach has "significant weaknesses," including economic ones (higher cost of credit). However, the author never states which approach is preferred by policymakers. More importantly, the author never claims that the drawbacks of Korobkin's approach outweigh the benefits, so this answer doesn't capture the main point.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 13%
  2. B Credited 73%
  3. C 7%
  4. D 3%
  5. E 4%

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