PrepTest 149

[lcid:3693] Prep Test 149 LSAT — Reading Comp — S2 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 13-20  .  . Passage A  .       Comedians are not amused when their jokes are  . stolen, and for that Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Legal Studies

Passage A
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • A problem facing stand-up comedians is discussed, along with the legal implications
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Problem - Joke stealing is rampant in the stand-up comedy world
    • Legal aspect - Copyright law is most relevant, but not used for two reasons
      • Expensive
      • Hurdles make a successful lawsuit uncertain
    • Copyright law doesn't provide practical protections
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • A paradox is introduced
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Traditional view - If something isn't legally protected, it won't be created
    • Reality - Comedians keep making up new jokes without legal protections
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • The paradox/question is resolved
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Social norms offer protections that the law doesn't
    • The norms have punishments - people won't work with/hire a joke stealer
Passage B
Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • A problem facing chefs is introduced
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Problem - Recipes aren't protected by patents or copyrights, and while they're protected by trade secret laws, that's rarely done
    • Solution - social norms
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • A description of the social norms at play, and their legal analogues
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Patents - Chefs don't use the recipe of another chef, even if it's publicly available
    • Contract - Chefs don't pass on secret information that a creator reveals to them
    • Copyright - Credit the chefs who created a recipe
Main Point:
Passage A - Copyright law doesn't protect jokes, but social norms provide similar protections and allow comedians to create and protect their work.

Passage B - Social norms provide chefs with protections similar to patents, contracts, and copyright.

Key Lines:

Passage A:
Lines 13-15 - Sum up problem faced by comedians
Lines 20-23 - Question/paradox presented
Lines 24-26 - The answer/resolution to the paradox is stated

Passage B:
Lines 40-44 - Sum up problem faced by chefs
Lines 46-49 - Solution to this problem is presented, along with structure for rest of passage
Paragraph 2 - A very dense paragraph that goes into the solutions developed for the chefs' problem

Meta-Structure - Relationship Between Passages:
This is an interesting set of Comparative Passages that falls into a repeated but less frequent pattern—they discuss analogous situations. Here, the legal situation for comedians is analogous to that of chefs, in that both lack many formal legal protections. And in both cases, social norms are noted as providing the protections that the law fails to provide.

Each passage presents a bit of a Problem/Solution structure, in that they highlight a lack of legal protections and how the industry has adapted to provide protections. And the first passage presents a Paradox/Question—why do comedians keep making jokes if they're not protected?

Last Thoughts:
This should be an interesting set of questions since the similarities between the passages largely come down to analogies and legal terms!

Question prompt

The author of passage 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

Legal

Answer choices

  1. A
    The social norms that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Must Be True

    Strategy Overview:
    Review the main point of Passage A, find answers that align with that, and then use notations/the passage to make a final call based on the details

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    The question stem here provides no guidance as to what the answer is going to address, so we have to work off of our big-picture understanding of Passage A. There, we noted that the main point was:

    Copyright law doesn't protect jokes, but social norms provide similar protections and allow comedians to create and protect their work.

    Let's focus on answers that align with this and what else we know about Passage A, and then confirm the correct answer in the passage itself.

    Answer Explanation:
    (Lines 16-20; Lines 24-26) This answer generally aligns with the main point that social norms work in allowing comedians to protect their work. Heading back to the passage, we see that the cost associated with developing jokes is mentioned as a part of the paradox that social norms resolve, so the Author of Passage A would agree with this answer.

    Key Takeaway:
    Note that some of these answers might seem like things the Author would probably believe if we asked her—e.g., (E). But this is the LSAT—we need strong textual evidence that directly speaks to what the Author would agree with. Don't treat these questions as ""softer"" than their LR equivalents just because they're in RC!
  2. B
    Comedians should increase their Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 34-39) Passage A ends with a pretty strong endorsement of social norms as being sufficient to protect comedians, so the Author wouldn't say that copyright law ""should"" be used more.
  3. C
    Most professional comedians are Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 16-20; Lines 24-26) The Author suggests that social norms allow for the recouping of these development costs, as how to recoup those costs is noted as a question that social norms help resolve. She also doesn't talk about how comedians think about this—just how she does.
  4. D
    Law-based intellectual property systems Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 13-15) The Author thinks that the system of social norms in the case of jokes and comedians works better than copyright law, but that doesn't allow us to say that she thinks this is true ""generally.""
  5. E
    Existing copyright law should Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 34-39) The Author seems to believe that social norms are working just fine, and they don't cost the comedians anything, so we can't say that the Author definitely thinks those laws ""should"" be modified in this way.

What this tests

Discussion

View all discussions Start a discussion