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Reading Comprehension: Comparative Reading

One set can arrive as a PAIR of short passages under one question set, related as generalization/instance, principle/application, or point/counterpoint.

11 topics · 43 questions

Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.

What a Comparative Reading Set Is

  1. How it worksHow does a comparative set split its questions between passage A alone, passage B alone, and the pair?
  2. How it worksWhat are the three relationships LSAC names between paired passages, and how do you tell them apart?
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't a comparative pair guaranteed to show up on every LSAT reading section?
  4. Going furtherWhat changes about your plan the moment two passages appear under one instruction line?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Passage A Institutions that outlive their founding purpose are kept alive by the constituencies they create. An agency set up to license 16 trades acquires, within a decade, an inspectorate, a training arm and a professional association, none of which existed to be served when the statute passed. Abolition then costs more votes than continuation costs money. Passage B The Fisheries Board was created to license 7 inshore trades and was wound up 38 years later, over the objections of its inspectorate. The minister who closed it had campaigned on the closure and held a majority of 40. Its training arm was transferred rather than dissolved, and the professional association survives. Which one of the following most accurately describes the relationship between the two passages?

Generalization and Instance

  1. How it worksHow do you check whether a case really is an instance of the generalization beside it?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through a pair where one author says all bureaucracies resist reform and the other narrates an agency that reformed.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't an instance passage automatically supporting the generalization passage next to it?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to the pair's relationship when the instance turns out to be an exception?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Passage A A merger should be blocked when it would leave the combined firm with more than 42 percent of a market that has had no entrant in the preceding five years. Below that share the ordinary remedies suffice; above it, divestiture arrives too late to matter. Passage B The proposed combination of the two carriers would give the merged line 68 percent of traffic on the northern route, where no new carrier has begun service since the route was opened. The regulator has asked for undertakings on fares rather than for divestiture. Which one of the following most accurately describes how the case in passage B stands to the rule in passage A?

Principle and Application

  1. How it worksHow do you test whether a second passage applies the first one's principle correctly?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through a pair where one text says speech loses protection when it incites imminent harm and the other judges a rally.
  3. Going furtherWhat changes when the applying author quietly adds a condition the principle never had?
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't an applying author obliged to endorse the principle being applied?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Passage A Speech loses its protection when it is directed to inciting imminent lawless action and is likely to produce it. Neither element alone suffices: an abstract call to violence at some future time remains protected, and an unheeded call to immediate violence is not likely to produce anything. Passage B The speaker told a crowd of 221 that the courthouse should be taken 'before the week is out'. The court held the speech unprotected, reasoning that 21 of those present were armed and that the crowd's temper made compliance likely. The application in passage B is defective in which one of the following respects?

Point and Counterpoint

  1. How it worksHow do you locate the exact sentence where two authors actually collide?
  2. How it worksShow me two argument maps side by side with agreement edges in one colour and disagreement in another.
  3. Worked exampleWalk me through finding the collision when one author says a tax caused a decline and the other says the decline came first.
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't a difference in tone between two authors the same as a disagreement about a claim?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Passage A The levy introduced in 1946 is what emptied the district's workshops. Employment there fell 46 percent in the 9 years that followed, and no comparable fall occurred in districts the levy did not reach. Passage B Workshop employment in the district had been falling for 11 years before the levy was introduced, at a rate the levy years did not exceed. Nobody disputes that the district declined; what is disputed is when the decline began. The point at which the two passages collide is

Reading Each Passage for Its Own Claim First

  1. How it worksHow do you finish the first passage with a one-line claim before letting the second one in?
  2. How it worksWhat does holding one author's claim as a single sentence buy you once the second author starts talking?
  3. Worked exampleWalk me through boiling a 250-word argument down to one sentence you can carry into a second text.
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to your notes when the second text turns out to be about something the first mentioned once?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Passage A Cities that removed an elevated highway saw traffic on the parallel streets rise by less than the removed capacity, and in 12 of the 21 cases studied total vehicle trips fell. Capacity is not a fixed demand that must go somewhere; it is part of what generates the demand. Passage B The 21 cases are the ones where removal was politically possible, which is to say the ones where the highway was already carrying less traffic than it was built for. A road at capacity has no such slack, and not one of the 21 was at capacity. Which one of the following states the claim of passage A in a single sentence?

What Both Authors Would Agree On

  1. How it worksHow do you test a candidate agreement against both texts instead of only the one you remember better?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through checking 'the policy had measurable effects' against an author who calls those effects real but trivial.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't a point only one of two authors raises something they both agree on?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Passage A Cities that removed an elevated highway saw traffic on the parallel streets rise by less than the removed capacity, and in 12 of the 21 cases studied total vehicle trips fell. Capacity is not a fixed demand that must go somewhere; it is part of what generates the demand. Passage B The 21 cases are the ones where removal was politically possible, which is to say the ones where the highway was already carrying less traffic than it was built for. A road at capacity has no such slack, and not one of the 21 was at capacity. Both authors would agree with which one of the following?

The Point at Issue Between Two Authors

  1. How it worksHow does a disagreement answer have to be something both authors take a position on?
  2. How it worksShow me why a claim one author never addresses cannot be the point at issue.
  3. Worked exampleWalk me through picking the disagreement when one author calls a method unreliable and the other calls it the best available.
  4. Going furtherWhat changes when a stem asks what two authors disagree about rather than which claim one would reject?
  5. Common mistakeWhy isn't the shared topic of two passages the same thing as the point at issue between them?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Passage A Radiocarbon dates from the shell midden are unreliable. Marine carbon depresses apparent ages by 2 to 7 centuries, and the correction applied at this site was derived from a different coastline. Passage B Radiocarbon on marine shell is the best method available for a midden of this kind. The correction is imperfect, and an imperfect date good to within 2 centuries beats the stratigraphic guess that is the only alternative on offer. The point at issue between the two authors is

The Assumption Neither Author States

  1. How it worksHow do you find a premise neither author states because neither thinks it needs saying?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through the unstated common ground when two authors argue over which policy best reduces crime.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't a shared assumption just something both texts happen to mention?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to both arguments at once when their shared assumption turns out to be false?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Passage A Longer sentences reduce crime by keeping out of circulation the 10 percent of offenders who commit most offences. The effect is mechanical and does not depend on deterrence. The 29 jurisdictions that lengthened sentences in the period are the natural test. Passage B Longer sentences raise crime on release: each additional year served raises the reoffending rate by 7 points, and the offenders who serve longest are those who reoffend most. In the same 29 jurisdictions the release cohorts are large enough to measure. Which one of the following is assumed by both authors without being stated by either?

How One Author Would Respond to the Other

  1. How it worksHow do you build a response out of an author's stated commitments instead of an author's general mood?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through one author's likely reply when the other claims oral histories are as reliable as written records.
  3. Going furtherWhat changes when a stem asks what one author would say about the other's method rather than conclusion?
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't 'would disagree' the answer whenever two authors are on opposite sides of an issue?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Passage A Oral testimony collected 55 years after the events is as reliable as a written record made at the time, provided the community has an institution for correcting it. A written record made at the time was also made by someone with an interest. Passage B The written record of the dispute was made by the clerk of the losing party, and the 22 oral accounts collected in the 55 years since agree with one another on the points where the clerk is silent. The author of passage A would most likely respond to passage B by

The Answer That Gets One Passage Right

  1. How it worksHow do you split a comparative answer choice into its two halves before judging either one?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through an answer reading 'both authors cite experimental data' when only one of them does.
  3. Common mistakeWhy doesn't reading an answer once catch a trap that is 80 percent correct?
  4. Ties togetherHow does the split-the-answer habit carry over to organization and attitude questions on a single text?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Passage A Cities that removed an elevated highway saw traffic on the parallel streets rise by less than the removed capacity, and in 12 of the 21 cases studied total vehicle trips fell. Capacity is not a fixed demand that must go somewhere; it is part of what generates the demand. Passage B The 21 cases are the ones where removal was politically possible, which is to say the ones where the highway was already carrying less traffic than it was built for. A road at capacity has no such slack, and not one of the 21 was at capacity. Which one of the following is accurate as a description of BOTH passages?

Why Two Short Passages Are Not an Easier Set

  1. How it worksHow does holding two argument structures at once cost more than holding one long one?
  2. How it worksWhat does a comparative set take away that a single long selection gives you for free?
  3. Going furtherWhat happens to your timing when you treat a comparative set as two separate reading sets?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
A comparative reading set carries 7 questions, of which 3 ask about the pair rather than about one passage. Compared with a single selection of the same total length, the comparative set requires a reader to

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