Round 6: Mapping answers when the prompt tells you where to look

Reading Comp: PrepTest 140, section 4, 4th passage: “Physicists are often asked…”
Difficulty level: 🌕🌕🌖🌑

Alright, let’s do this! I’m sure your enthusiasm for practicing Reading Comp is so great that you have no patience for a long-winded intro. Cool with me. We learn by doing around here, so let’s get into it and we’ll recap the big takeaway at the end.

The passage I’ll be walking through in this round is in PrepTest 140, Section 4. Get that opened up in LawHub or wherever you access official practice tests. We’re gonna jump to the last passage that starts with question 20.

If you’re still new to LSAT strategy, I recommend you read a paragraph of the passage, then check my walkthrough before you keep going. The takeaway from the last Reading Comp round was to highlight the author’s conclusion/s (using the on-screen highlighter tool), so let’s see if we agree about whether there’s something to highlight in this first paragraph.

Is there a conclusion in the first paragraph?

This paragraph starts by raising a question about why mirrors work like they do, then it gives an answer from some physicists. There’s also a little explanation of their answer, so you might think the “Since…” statement is support for that followed by a conclusion. But the author isn’t trying to argue that “mirror images usually appear reversed left-to-right”. That’s just a fact. I’d expect you to agree the author is presenting someone’s answer to a question, but isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. At least not yet. This whole paragraph is background.

Do we see the author’s argument in the 2nd paragraph?

It starts with “However…” That’s an argument word for sure. But then the author brings in “some physicists” who disagree with the other physicists in the first paragraph. So the author still isn’t in on the argument. Until we get to “clearly based on a false premise”. That sounds like a conclusion, and it’s the author talking this time. So I’m looking to see if that statement gets support. And there it is right after the colon: the author explains why we should agree with this statement. So “this explanation…is clearly based on a false premise“ is the author’s conclusion, and we highlight it before moving on.

Read the paragraph, then take a moment to reflect (cuz it’s about mirrors, get it?)

This paragraph starts with a statement that doesn’t sound too controversial, but did you notice that the author spends the rest of the paragraph giving support for it? The whole thing is explaining why this “front-to-back” thing appeals to people, and the example at the end is just clarifying that explanation (or trying to). So “This explanation appeals strongly to many people“ is a conclusion worth highlighting.

One more fascinating paragraph left to read and tag…

This paragraph reads just like an LR argument: first there’s some background presenting an argument the author is gonna disagree with. “However…” signals the start of the author’s argument. You’ll agree I’m sure that “questions about the appearances of images…” is the conclusion, and the reasoning “If we remove the observer….” is support for that conclusion. So I’m highlighting “questions about the appearances of images can be answered only if we consider both what mirrors do and what happens when we look into mirrors.“

This is so interesting I might fall out of my chair. Let’s score the points.

_{PrepTest 140 section 4}
20.

The “main point” always maps to the author’s conclusions

Here, the prompt fills in the beginning of the main point. Doesn’t “an adequate explanation of mirror images” in the prompt sound like the author’s final conclusion: “questions about the appearance of images…”? So I expect the right answer to sound like the rest of that conclusion: “consider both what mirrors do and what happens when we look into mirrors.“

Is there an answer that maps best to the author’s conclusion?

(A) is saying the same thing! You want to be confident that “must” maps to the “only” in the author’s conclusion. And the “two particular elements” are “what mirrors do” and “what happens when we look into mirrors”.

I’d like you to be happy picking this and moving on, since it’s such a strong match. But the other answers are really short, so I’ll at least check them to make sure I don’t have a false positive here.

(B) “has yet to be determined” doesn’t map to any of the author’s conclusions.

(C) Neither does “must be determined by physicists”. That issue never came up.

(D) “is still subject to debate” is certainly a reasonable deduction to draw based on the passage, but it doesn’t map to any conclusions, so it couldn’t possibly be the “main point”.

(E) Us laypeople definitely come away from the passage thinking it’s “extremely complicated”. But the author never said anything like that.

(A) is the correct answer.

As I walk through the rest of the questions on this passage, I’d like you to reserve some of your attention for recognizing whether the prompt tells you where to look for the right answer in the passage.

_{PrepTest 140 section 4}
21.

The prompt tells you where the answer is by referring to “left-to-right reversal”

The author didn’t make a conclusion about that, so you need to find something else in the text to check the wording of answers against. You’ll want to map the answers to the exact reference made in the prompt as aggressively as you can on any prompt that tells you where to look in the passage.

In this case, use the search box to find “left-to-right” or “reversal”, and you’ll see the right answer wants to map the later part of the first paragraph.

Is there an answer that maps best to the reference in the prompt?

(A) “front-to-back” hasn’t been mentioned yet in the first paragraph, so this isn’t it.

(B) This copies and pastes from the end of the first paragraph, immediately after the reference from the prompt. Boom!

(C) “size” is never mentioned, and only the position of the observer is mentioned, not the “position of the object”

(D) “difference between two-dimensional and three-dimensional” comes up only in passing, and well after this reference is made.

(E) “mental constructs” haven’t been mentioned yet in the first paragraph. Out.

(B) is the correct answer.

_{PrepTest 140 section 4}
22.

Check the reference in the prompt: it’s wordy as hell but it tells you where to look

A quick search tells us the reference is in the second sentence of the second paragraph, where the conclusion talked about front-to-back’s appeal. I would expect the right answer to map pretty closely to that.

How many answers talk about “front-to-back”?

Just one, and it’s (B). “Understand” maps nicely to the passage saying it “seems natural”, but that’s just gravy. The other answers in this list are way, way off. None of them sound like the reference in the 2nd paragraph.

(B) is the correct answer.

_{PrepTest 140 section 4}
23.

The author made two conclusions about “front-to-back”.

We highlighted that this explanation is “clearly based on a false premise” but that it also “appeals strongly to many people“. You should be confident the right answer will map to one or both of these statements.

(A), (B), (C) all say the explanation is “successful” but nothing in them maps to the author’s disagreement.

(D) “consistent with traditional explanations” doesn’t map to any statements made in the passage, let alone the author’s conclusions.

(E) This captures the attitude in those first two conclusions, but it also almost exactly matches the last conclusion that follows “However” in the last paragraph. A no doubter.

(E) is the right answer.

_{PrepTest 140 section 4}
24.

“The author is primarily concerned” with arguing for their conclusions

In this case, that was disagreeing with the front-to-back explanation of mirrors.

Is there an answer that sounds like “disagreeing with front-to-back”?

(D) says the exact same thing just with non-specific wording. Just like my uncle on the backyard hoop when I was little, it’s a slam dunk.

(A) There’s no “experimental evidence” anywhere.

(B) There are no “different empirical observations”.

(C) There’s no discussion of “difficulties that must be overcome”.

(E) And of course, there’s no “acceptance of that explanation”.

(D) is the right answer.

_{PrepTest 140 section 4}
25.

The author is “most likely to agree” with something that fits with their conclusions

Sometimes these answers are more specific, sometimes more broad. In any case, you can eliminate anything that doesn’t map to a conclusion and you should end up with just one answer left that gets you the points.

Is there an answer that maps best to the author’s conclusions?

(A) The author didn’t say anything about “the need for better optical equipment”.

(B) Be careful, the author only disagrees with one explanation in this passage, and definitely does NOT say explanations “generally fail”.

(C) “One explanation of what mirrors do…” is right on track matching the author’s conclusions, and if you search “traditional” or “separate” you see that the details in this answer map perfectly to the first sentence of the last paragraph.

(D) Nothing “depends on their training” in the author’s conclusions.

(E) This is wrong five times before it hits the floor. No one in the passage is “considering objects in mirrors to be mental constructs”. The image of an object is a mental construct, which the passage says matter-of-factly. No one is “considering” anything to be a mental construct though. Also, “understanding of how primary perceptions function” is way too broad. That doesn’t map to any of the author’s conclusions.

(C) is the right answer.

_{PrepTest 140 section 4}
26.

Check the prompt: what will the right answer map to this time?

This one may be a little tricky. “The author would be most likely to agree…” tells you that mapping the answers to conclusions is pretty safe, so feel good approaching this one that way. But the prompt also makes a reference to “the field-of-sight explanation”. That was talked about in the first paragraph, so the right answer could map to a detail in there too.

Focus on what you can eliminate first

(A) The “traditional desire of physicists” doesn’t map to any conclusions or any details in the first paragraph.

(B) Did you catch what’s happening here? The “false premise” thing is what the author said about the other explanation. So, could it be fair to say they’d agree the first explanation does NOT “depend” on that “false premise”? Yah maybe. I’m keeping this one until/unless I find something that maps better.

(C) The author doesn’t say anything about how “This explanation fails…”

(D) “people…do not understand” doesn’t map to any conclusions or statements in the first paragraph.

(E) Like (C), the author doesn’t say anything about how “this explanation is unsuccessful…”

(B) is the right answer.

_{PrepTest 140 section 4}
27.

Check the prompt, then check where it tells you to look

Do you see that the reference in the passage is part of the example? What is the example trying to support or explain? If you’re not sure, the answer is pretty much always whatever it says right before that. Here, the author gives this example to show that “mirrors are ‘designed’ to make a two-dimensional surface appear to have depth”. So the right answer wants to say something like, “explain/support that mirrors are ‘designed’ to…”

Is there an answer that maps best to the reference in the passage?

(A) It’s not to “Contrast” anything.

(B) Where does it say anything is “impossible”?

(C) You gotta love “simulate three-dimensional reality”, which maps directly to “appear to have depth”.

(D) The example doesn’t talk about “mental constructs” or “perceptions”. At least not explicitly. (C) is clearly better.

(E) The example doesn’t say anything like “psychological activity of the observer”.

(C) is the right answer.

Hoo-boy that was some serious lawyerin’! For real though, this is a dense physics passage with several higher difficulty questions, so give yourself some gratitude for powering through that with me.

The big takeaway: Map answers to the exact reference in the passage whenever the prompt tells you where to look

I’d love it if you can already see there are really only two things happening when you look at Reading Comp answers strategically: when you’re not mapping answers to highlighted conclusions, you’re mapping them to references in the passage. I’ll give you a lot more chances to practice that with me in future rounds. Keep up the psyche in the meantime.

The plan will work if you do.