PrepTest 139

[lcid:3654] Prep Test 139 LSAT — Reading Comp — S3 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 1-7  .       The prevailing trend in agriculture toward  . massive and highly mechanized production, with its  . heavy dependence Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • A problematic trend (massive/mechanized farms run on credit) and an alternative approach (Whatley's small farming guidelines)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view on a problematic trend:
      • Mass/mechanized production funded by debt has led to small farm bankruptcies (first sentence)
    • Whatley's alternative approach:
      • Small farms can do something else to make money if they follow his guidelines (second and last sentences(
    • Author's attitude: "prevailing trend" (first sentence);

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Whatley's guidelines (crop variety, grow what people ask for)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Whatley's guidelines:
      • Small farms need year-round cash (first sentence)
      • 10+ crops in case 1 fails (second sentence)
      • To minimize the need for loans, run "client membership clubs" and grow crops clients ask for (third and last sentences)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Whatley's guidelines ("pick-your-own" farming, which eliminates harvesting and distribution costs)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Whatley's guidelines (cont. from last paragraph):
      • Having "pick-your-own" farming eliminates harvesting costs, which amount to 50% of, and distribution costs (first and second sentences)
    • Example of a client membership club, according to Whatley:
      • A 25-acre farm needs 1,000 clients from nearby cities (third and last sentences)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Whatley's guidelines (on a road within 40 miles of 50,000+ people, irrigation, insurance)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Whatley's guidelines (cont. from last paragraph):
      • Farm on a hard-surfaced road within 40 miles of an area with 50,000+ people (first sentence)
      • Water for irrigation (third sentence)
      • $1 million liability insurance (fourth sentence)

Main Point: According to Whatley, an alternative to mass mechanized, debt-financed production for small farms involves direct interaction and sales to clients can allow a small farm to be profitable.

Key Lines?

Paragraph 1, Sentence 1 (P1, S1) - A problematic trend

P1, S2 - Whatley's alternative is introduced

P4, S5 - Whatley's conclusion

Meta-Structure?

Problem/Solution - This passage follows a Problem/Solution Meta-Structure.* The author brings up a problem in the first paragraph: a trend towards mass, mechanized farm production that's causing small farms to rely on debt and end up in bankruptcy. The author then outlines the solution proposed by Booker T. Whatley for the rest of the passage.

Normally, in a Problem/Solution passage, the author's preferred solution is the main point or, if that's missing, her opinion on a proposed solution is the main point. Here, the author doesn't propose a solution or disclose their feelings on Whatley's solution. So, the main point is that Whatley has proposed a solution, leading to what we wrote above.

*Or so we say, you know? Many Meta-Structures work for this passage. It could be an Old Approach/New Approach passage, with Whatley representing the new approach. It could be an Innovative Subject passage, given Whatley's "innovative" approach to small farming. It could even be a Reporting a Viewpoint passage since the author mostly just reports Whatley's guidelines without offering any commentary. Any of these Meta-Structures would help you understand the passage's main point and organization.

List: Arguably, the minor Meta-Structure is even more important than the major Meta-Structure in this passage. Paragraphs 2 through 4 are organized around a list of Whatley's guidelines. We recommend highlighting each item on that list (each guideline) since several questions will likely ask about those. Having these items highlighted will allow us to scan the passage and quickly locate the relevant details.

Last Thoughts?

With very little author's attitude and a relatively straightforward structure, we expect we'll mostly get Minor Point questions. If you don't find memorizing a few details too burdensome, we recommend trying to remember a few of Whatley's guidelines. That way, we can avoid a few fact-finding missions and advance through the questions efficiently. Of course, we shouldn't commit all the guidelines to memory. But let's synthesize them into three bullet points:

  • 10+ crops
  • Grow what people ask for and let them pick it
  • Easy-to-access location

Question prompt

According to the passage, 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.

Strategy Overview

Refer to notes or what you highlighted/underlined to locate where the passage discusses "pick-your-own" farming, and refer to the relevant part of the passage as needed to find that answer choice that must be true

Answer Anticipation

For questions that ask us to find a specific detail mentioned in the passage, quickly finding and reviewing that piece of information is paramount. That is why we make brief notes describing the role of each paragraph and highlight or underline definitions and the minor Meta-Structures — doing so helps us find the salient information efficiently and reliably. Once we review that part of the passage, we can look through the answer choices to see which one is best supported by what we reviewed.Here, the question asks about "pick-your-own" farming. Where did that show up in the passage? Our note for the third paragraph ("Whatley's guidelines ('pick-your-own' farming, which eliminates harvesting and distribution costs)") should direct our attention there.(There are a few other ways we could have found this reference. First, you could look for quotation marks in the passage. Our brains are good at finding numbers, quotes, and italics in text, and doing so would quickly get us to the relevant line. Second, we just reviewed the section on "pick-your-own" farming for the last question — it helped us find the correct answer. Remembering that should have led us back to the relevant line. Third, there's always the CTRL/Command + F search function.)No matter how you found it, the beginning of the third paragraph shows us that Whatley thinks "pick-your-own" farming is necessary to operate a profitable small farm because "50 percent" of production costs are tied up in harvesting, so getting the clients to harvest their own produce allows farmers to charge much less than supermarkets and still make money (P3, S1). Let's find an answer that describes at least one of these details.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Customers are given the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this answer choice say that "pick-your-own" farming is necessary because it reduces production costs and allows farmers to charge much less than supermarkets and still make money?

    Nope. So we can cross off (A). This answer choice brings up a potential reason for the "pick-your-own" model, but it's not one that Whatley advocates in the passage.

  2. B
    It guarantees a substantial Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this answer choice say that "pick-your-own" farming is necessary because it reduces production costs and allows farmers to charge much less than supermarkets and still make money?

    No. Besides, this answer choice has strong, SCOTUS-y language that's unlikely to be present in the correct answer to a Must Be True question. For this reason, we can cross off (B).

    If we reviewed the passage to eliminate (B), we'd see that Whatley advocates growing at least ten different crops having a year-round cash flow (P2, S1-S2). He doesn't connect the "pick-your-own" model to this goal, and he doesn't say crop variety or the "pick-your-own" model will "guarantee" a cash flow.

  3. C
    It allows farmers to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    (C) Does this answer choice say that "pick-your-own" farming is necessary because it reduces production costs and allows farmers to charge much less than supermarkets and still make money?

    Yes, it does. Whatley says that harvest costs account for 50% of production costs, so having clients harvest their own produce allows farms to charge 60% of what supermarkets do while still making a profit (P3, S1). This answer perfectly reflects those details, making it the correct answer. We can justifiably select it and advance to the next question.

  4. D
    Only those varieties of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this answer choice say that "pick-your-own" farming is necessary because it reduces production costs and allows farmers to charge much less than supermarkets and still make money?

    No. For that reason, we can cross off (D). Whatley does advocate for the clients to define the crops grown, but this isn't tied to the "pick-your-own" model from the passage. This answer is trying to get you to think that the "picking" in that model is the same as choosing crops when, in reality, it's using "picking" to mean "harvesting." Reviewing the passage to form your anticipation will clear up that ambiguity.

  5. E
    Consumers who are willing Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this answer choice say that "pick-your-own" farming is necessary because it reduces production costs and allows farmers to charge much less than supermarkets and still make money?

    Nope. So, we can eliminate (E). Besides, the passage states that a study shows people won't travel farther than a set distance for food, but it doesn't talk about the potential market of people who are willing to drive to harvest their own food. At most, it talks about a potential market of people who are willing to drive to get fresh produce, and they may also be willing to harvest it themselves.

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