PrepTest 120

[lcid:3577] Prep Test 120 LSAT — Reading Comp — S2 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 1-5  .        In 1963, a three–week–long demonstration for jobs  . at the construction site of the Downstate Medical Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Background and goals of protest
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • What - 1963 protest at construction site
    • One of most significant and publicized civil rights campaigns
    • Led by ministers (previously politically moderate) from their congregation
    • Goal - Force government and industry changes in union hiring practices (excluded African Americans)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • How it came about; What ministers risked
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) recruited ministers
    • Ministers moderate and served as mediators between government and communities; also worked for parties or ran for office - Risked by protests

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Outcome
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Agreement - Gov’t and union leaders
    • Some Activists - Shortcoming - Didn’t have specific legislation or job numbers
    • Author - Pro - Gov’t did agree to enforce anti-discrimination legislation
    • Author - Pro - Got public to see issues in construction industry and in North
    • Author - Pro - Ministers maintained moderate ties, serving as model

Main Point: While the ministers at the Downstate protest weren’t able to get everything some activists wanted, they managed to get some concessions while raising the public’s awareness of discrimination in the North and in the construction industry while maintaining their moderate ties and serving as a model for future action.

Key Lines?

Lines 1-5 - Overview of key event

Lines 5-9 - What made the event notable

Lines 12-17 - Goals of the protest

Lines 26-29 - What was at risk

Lines 40-43 - More on what was at risk

Lines 44-46 - Outcome

Lines 49-51 - Some consider outcome bad

Line 49 - Author’s opinion starts, with list of positive outcomes

Meta-Structure?

Importance of Event - Much as we see Humanities passages that focus on an important work or movement, we also see Social Science passages that focus on the importance of an event. These passages go into the details of that event, usually establishing some historical context before describing what happened and why it was notable. Here, the passage starts with the event’s background (along with a statement that it was important - Lines 3-5) and the goals of those behind it. It then provides background context for those involved in the event, and it ends with a discussion of the outcome. This discussion of the outcome includes a list of positives presented by the Author, starting in Line 49. When a passage falls into this Meta-Structure, the Author’s view of why the event is important serves as the basis for the main point, as reflected in our summary above.

Last Thoughts?

There’s not a lot of depth to this passage - it’s a pretty straight-forward discussion, without a lot of argumentation or call-backs. And that’s reflected in there being only 5 questions for it. Let’s try to get through them quickly so we can save up some time for a later passage!

Question prompt

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

Credited answer: A

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

Question Type

Social Science

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

This question stem asks about the group of ministers who led the Downstate campaign, which is a specific topic. However, the entire passage discussed that group and what they accomplished with the Downstate campaign, so we can’t narrow down one section or paragraph as where the support for the answer is likely to show up.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 choices

  1. A
    The Downstate campaign did Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem

    (A) (Lines 31-35; Lines 40-43) This answer is tricky! It seems like an easy elimination, especially in the context of our answer to Question #3, which focused on how the Downstate campaign represented a change for the ministers. However, that answer and the passage says that the change was in the methods of achieving their goals. The ministers were said to have been working for decades on addressing the social, political, and economic concerns of their communities, and addressing systemic discrimination would certainly fall under that umbrella. As such, the campaign represented a new means of this group working towards their same goals, so this is the correct answer.

  2. B
    After the Downstate campaign, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 64-66) The Author does talk about future campaigns, but she states that the ministers who led the Downstate campaign “served as a model” for these future campaigns, not that they led them themselves.

  3. C
    They had come together Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Lines 31-35) The passage does note that the ministers had worked for decades to address social, political, and economic concerns of their communities, but it doesn’t specifically note that they had ever focused on the construction industry before, so this answer is unsupported.

  4. D
    They were criticized both Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Lines 49-51) The passage says that “some civil rights activists” considered the agreement incomplete. It doesn’t note that any of these activists were from CORE, or that they spoke for any civil rights organization. It also doesn’t say they criticized the ministers for the incomplete agreement - they could have believed the ministers did the best they could, even though it led to a shortcoming in the outcome.

  5. E
    Prior to the Downstate Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) This is a weird answer - the passage would need to either say that the ministers had never been involved in civil rights work, or that the CORE situation was the first time they were involved in that work. That’s how you’d prove a negative like this, but neither of those statements are present, so this answer is incorrect.

What this tests

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