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

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

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review the Authors’s overall argument about the Great Migration, then find an answer supporting it

Answer Anticipation

This question asks about the Great Migration, and we know that the Authors discuss the initial migration and the continued and accelerating migration during it, so we should sum up both parts of the argument individually, as the correct answer could strengthen either part. At this point, we should be pretty familiar with both sections of the argument, as we’ve read through the passage and answered 6 questions about it already!Initial migration - Increased demand for labor in the North and decreased demand in the South led to a widening North-South income gap, driving the initial migration (Lines 7-19).Continued/Accelerating migration - Momentum caused the acceleration and duration of the Great Migration even as the wage gap decreased (Lines 19-25), as earlier migrants lowered the financial, personal, and cultural costs of moving North (Paragraph 4).Let’s find an answer that supports either of these explanations.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The average amount of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 45-48) The Authors say that earlier migrants provided information about the labor market to later migrants, lowering the cost of migration. If it took longer to find employment, that suggests this information wasn’t too helpful, and it would increase the cost of migrating as people would need to live off of savings (or charity) until they found jobs. Thus, this answer undermines the Authors’s argument about momentum building.

  2. B
    In general, communities of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) (Lines 44-45; Lines 48-51) The Authors argue that information was shared by earlier migrants who “made trips back to their home communities.” And that first-time migrants traveled North with earlier migrants who made a trip back home to the South before returning. Both made it less costly for later migrants, driving the increase in migration over decades. If communities of African Americans in the North largely originated from the same places in the South, this would bolster the argument that the earlier migrants were making it easier for later migrants via these means. This answer is thus correct.

  3. C
    Housing prices in the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Two issues with this answer. First, it doesn’t compare the costs of housing in the North and South. If the stable price in the South was always higher than in the North, then that says something very different than if it was always lower, even with the fluctuations. Second, such extreme fluctuations could have made it hard to reliably migrate North, as you wouldn’t know what the housing prices would look like when you made it up there, thus stymying migration.

  4. D
    To maintain a steady Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Lines 23-25) The Authors argue that it’s the earlier migrants who lower the migration costs for future migrants, leading to their migration. This answer proposes a different explanation for the migration - Northern employers sending recruiters. As such, it weakens the argument.

  5. E
    There was a large-scale Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Without discussing the factors in the later 20th Century that may have led to this reverse migration, or whether the reverse migration started slow and then sustained itself and accelerated, we can’t say whether it lines up with or cuts against the Authors’s argument.

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