Reading comp PrepTest 156 · Section 1 · Question 16

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

The passage most helps Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

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

Question Type

Legal

Answer choices

  1. A
    What is the likelihood Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    "Likelihood" would require a percentage, and we didn't note any numbers, so this answer is unlikely to be correct. Hard pass. This passage never discusses a company's prospect of surviving bankruptcy, so the passage does not answer this question.
  2. B
    What percentage of contractually Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Similar to (A), the answer to this would need to be a number, and numbers generally stick out in a field of text. None were mentioned, so we should eliminate this answer choice.
  3. C
    What arguments does Jackson Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    Question Type:
    Must Be True

    Strategy Overview:
    Remind ourselves of the main point of the passage, then head to the answers, focusing on those that line up with the main point and then using our notes/the passage to find the correct answer

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    This question stem doesn't provide any clue about the topic of the correct answer or where it'll show up in the passage. As such, we'll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer this question. We should start by reminding ourselves of the main point (either by reviewing what we said after reading the passage or by rereading our answer to the main point question). From there, we can head to the answers, deferring on those that don't line up with the main point. For those that do, we'll use our notes and the passage to see if it's correct.

    Answer Choice Explanation:
    (P1, S3-4) This answer asks about one of the viewpoints, so we should check to see where the passage presented Jackson's viewpoint, and whether it outlined arguments in favor of his approach. Checking our notes, we see Jackson commented on the Old Approach towards the end of P1. In that paragraph, he offers arguments, or reasons, in favor of the Old Approach, arguing that the Old Approach results in a "fairly adjudicated" and "efficient" process. Since we can point to the part of the passage that answers this question, it is correct.

    Key Takeaway:
    Notice our approach to (A), (B), and (D). By thinking about what type of information would answer that question, we could consider whether we noted such information. Since we would normally note such information but didn't, we could feel comfortable eliminating that answer.

  4. D
    What kinds of creditors Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    In asking about "what kinds of" something, this question asks about a list of examples. We would have noted such a list of examples and, since we didn't, we can be reasonably certain there's no such list in the passage.
  5. E
    What are some of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    The first step in analyzing this question is figuring out if the orderly discharge of debts refers to the old or New Approach. Whether we recall or consult our notes, we can determine the Old Approach emphasized paying creditors what they're owed. The next step is to determine whether the passage lists inefficiencies in the Old Approach. Korobkin criticizes that system in Paragraph 2, but he highlights the lack of consideration of other interested parties, not inefficiencies in that process. So this question doesn't have an answer, and this answer choice is incorrect.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 4%
  2. B 3%
  3. C Credited 51%
  4. D 4%
  5. E 38%

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