PrepTest 148

[lcid:3689] Prep Test 148 LSAT — Reading Comp — S2 Reading comp

Passage

This passage was adapted from an article written by three economists.  .       Roughly 40 percent of the African American  . Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • A phenomenon is introduced and 3 causes are listed
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Phenomenon - Great Migration - 40% of African American population South for North (1915-1960)
    • 3 causes (all related to labor) - WWI, decrease in immigration, boll weevils in South

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • 3 causes/phenomenon summed up, and a question is posed
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Summary - North-South income gap so big it kicked off migration
    • Question - Why did it continue/accelerate as income gap narrowed?

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Authors’s view presented, and some background research
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Authors (Explanation/Answer) - Momentum develops as migrants make it easier for others to migrate
    • Economist (assumption) - Additional earnings exceed migration costs → People migrate
    • List of migration costs (uncertainty of housing/job; moving costs; familiarization of new location)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Authors show how these costs are lowered as migration continues
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Empirical studies - Letters provided potential migrants info
    • New migrants traveled with old (lower moving costs)
    • New migrants stayed with old (easier to adapt to new area)

Main Point: By helping with moving costs and familiarization with a new location and its job and housing markets, previous migrants lowered the cost of migration for future migrants, explaining the continued and accelerating migration of African Americans even after the North-South income gap narrowed.

Key Lines?

Lines 1-4 - A phenomenon is noted

Lines 7-8 - A list is introduced (causes of phenomenon)

Lines 19-22 - A question about the phenomenon is introduced

Lines 23-25 - The Authors’s answer/explanation is previewed

Lines 25-29 - An assumption of relevant experts is noted

Lines 29-31 - Another list is introduced (factors in migration cost)

Paragraph 4 - The assumptions are addressed to support the explanation

Meta-Structure?

Question/Answer and Phenomenon/Explanation - The passage is meant to answer a question about an unexpected aspect of a phenomenon. While the “topic” of the passage is itself a phenomenon - the Great Migration - the Authors raise a question about it in Paragraph 2 that the passage is designed to answer/explain: Why did the migration continue/accelerate even when the driving force behind it lessened? (Lines 19-22). The rest of the passage is designed to answer that question and explain the phenomenon - momentum, as earlier migrants lowered the costs associated with future migration (Lines 23-25). And since the Author’s answer to a question or explanation for a phenomenon is usually the main point of the passage, we should check to see if it serves that purpose here. Since the rest of the passage is meant to highlight support for that answer, we can conclude that it is the main point.

Last Thoughts?

The Authors raise the assumptions of Economists here. Normally, when an assumption is pointed out, it’s to highlight a weakness in an argument, and that assumption is attacked or undermined. Here, however, the Authors use the implications of the assumption to build their argument. In this case, the assumption operates more as a generally accepted theory that the Authors apply.

Also, the Authors speak in the first-person (“We propose”; Line 23). When that happens, it’s important to note as it tells us that the Authors are taking a proactive role in the passage, and there’s a good chance that a question will reflect on that.

Question prompt

The passage provides the 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

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Remind ourselves of the main point, then use this overall understanding of the passage to focus on answers that are more likely to be correct, using our notes and the passage to support the correct answer

Answer Anticipation

There’s no guidance as to where in the passage this answer will show up, or what topic it will deal with, so we need to use our overall understanding of the passage to guide us. We should remind ourselves of the main point (either by reflecting on what we said after reading the passage or rereading the answer we selected to Question #7), and then head straight to the answers. We’ll focus on those that line up with this big-picture understanding of the passage, and then dive back into the passage to find information supporting those answers, if it exists.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The highest-paying agricultural jobs Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 16-19) The Authors argue that the widening North-South income gap kicked off the Great Migration, but they don’t give any details about individual wages (highest vs. lowest) either before or after 1915, so this answer features an unsupported comparison.

  2. B
    The overall cost of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 23-25) The main point made by the Authors is that “current migration reduces the difficulty and cost of future migration,” contradicting this answer about earlier migrants facing lower costs.

  3. C
    The North-South income gap Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    (C) (Lines 8-15; Lines 16-19) The Authors list three factors in kicking off the Great Migration - increased labor demand in the North, less labor supply in the North, and less labor demand in the South. They sum this up (“In short”) as the North-South income gap becoming large enough to entice migration. As such, the passage strongly supports the view that the income gap increased in 1915, kicking off the Great Migration, because of the increased labor demand in the North and decreased labor demand in the South, as this answer states.

  4. D
    The average wages in Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Lines 8-15; Lines 16-19) As we just noted in (C), the passage argues that the increase in the income gap was due to both increased demand for labor in the North and decreased demand for labor in the South. That suggests that wages in the North went up and in the South went down, based on supply and demand. And even if we don’t apply that economic principle here, we can still select this answer based on comparisons. The North and South both were similar in that they saw a change in labor demand, so you’d expect them both to be similar in their reaction to that - a change in wages. And since we know wages must have changed in at least one of them because the wage gap increased, we can infer based on facing similar (if opposite) causes that they’d see similar (if opposite) effects.

  5. E
    Most migrants in the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) (Lines 41-45; Lines 48-51) When discussing information being passed along, the passage says that this was done both via letter and via visits back South, but it never uses language suggesting that “[m]ost” early migrants made such return trips. And when discussing the costs of migration for later migrants, traveling with those who migrated earlier is said to have “often” happened. There’s no language in the passage strong enough to support this answer.

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