PrepTest 149 - Section 2 - Passage 3 - Question 14

Hide analysis

Passage A.

Phenomenon · Comedians don't use copyright law to protect their jokes from theft

Hypothesis · Filing lawsuits is too expensive to protect jokes

Costs include both actual costs and legal uncertainty about how copyright law applies to joke stealing.

Phenomenon · Despite no legal protection against joke theft, comedians still write lots of jokes

That's unexpected. Conventional wisdom would say that without legal protection, comedians wouldn't write jokes. But conventional wisdom is wrong.

███ ██████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██████ █████ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ █ ██████ ████ █████ ██████ ███████ █ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ █████████ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ █████████ █████████ █████ ██████████ █████ ███████████ ███ █████ ███████ ████████████ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ █████████████ ██████ █ ██████████ ███████ █████ ████ ████████ ███████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ██████ █████████ ██ ██████████████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████████

Hypothesis · Social norms protect from joke theft

Norms are enforced by punishments, such as damage to reputation.

███████ █

████████████ █████ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ ██ █ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ███ ███ █ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ████████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███████████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ███ █████ ███████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ███

Intro topic · Chefs don't use law to protect their recipes

Intellectual property law usually doesn't cover recipes, and chefs rarely use trade secrecy laws.

████████ █████ ████████ ██████ █████ ███ █████████ █████ ██████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ████████ ██ █ ██████ █████ ███████ ██ █████████ ████████████ ████████ ████████

Social norms · Chefs protect recipes by three social norms

(Just like how Passage A said comedians use social norms to protect their jokes.)

Norm 1 · Don't copy another chef's recipe exactly

Functions like patent protection for something innovative.

Norm 2 · If secret recipe is revealed, don't pass it to someone else

Functions like trade secrecy protection.

Norm 3 · Give credit to people who developed recipes

Functions like copyright protection.

Passage Style

14.

Passage A, but not passage ██ █████████

Question Type

Stated

The correct answer will be discussed in Passage A, but not in Passage B. If you’re using the Split Approach, start by eliminating answers that aren’t discussed in Passage A. Then, after Passage B, eliminate any remaining answers that are discussed in Passage B.

the relationship of ██████ █████ ██ ████████████ ████████ ████

This is discussed in Passage B.

the evolution of ██████ █████

Passage A doesn’t discuss how social norms have changed (”the evolution” = change).

the enforcement of ██████ █████

This is discussed in Passage A but not in Passage B.

61%

the limitations of ██████ █████

Passage A doesn’t discuss the limits of social norms. We don’t get any discussion of the kinds of things social norms can’t protect or the ways in which social norms don’t go as far as intellectual property.

the impact of ██████ █████ ██ ████████ ██████

This is discussed in Passage B. In particular, we’re told that social norms allow chefs to exclude others from using a recipe. This is one impact of social norms on the creative output of a chef (the recipe can be protected from copying).

31%

PrepTest 149 - Section 2 - Passage 3 - Question 14

Difficulty

Analysis

Answer Popularity

Question history

Confirm action