Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Easy

PT139 S2 P1 Q2 Explanation

New Urbanism

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsLocate DetailSociety

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Passage

Over the past 50 years, expansive, low-density communities have proliferated at the edges of many cities in the United States and Canada, creating a phenomenon known as suburban sprawl. Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, a group of prominent town planners belonging to a movement called New Urbanism, contend that suburban town planners contend, as it is to imagine the concept of family independent of the home.

Suburban housing subdivisions, Duany and his colleagues add, usually contain homes identical not only in appearance but also in price, resulting in a de facto economic segregation of residential neighborhoods. Children growing up in these neighborhoods, whatever their economic circumstances, are certain to be ill prepared for life in a diverse society. give people of diverse backgrounds and lifestyles an opportunity to interact and thus develop mutual respect.

Opponents of New Urbanism claim that migration to sprawling suburbs is an expression of people’s legitimate desire to secure the enjoyment and personal mobility provided by the automobile and the lifestyle that it makes possible. However, the New Urbanists do not question people’s right to their own values; instead, they suggest that individual mobility, consumption, and wealth should be valued absolutely, regardless of their impact on community life.

What this question is testing

Locate Detail

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
2.

According to the passage, the New Urbanists cite which one of the following as a detrimental result of the need for people to travel

Answer choices

  1. Out of Scope1% picked this

    It imposes an extra financial burden on the residents of sprawling suburbs, thus detracting from the

    A financial burdern is not mentioned in the passage as a detrimental result of extensive use of the automobile.

  2. Contradiction1% picked this

    It detracts from the amount of time that people could otherwise devote

    The time spent in a car is suggested in the passage as taking away time from social interactions (second paragraph).

  3. Correct97% picked this

    It increases the amount of time people spend in situations in which

    Why this is right

    This is supported in the second paragraph.

    Skill tested: Locate Detail · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  4. Out of Scope0% picked this

    It produces significant amounts of air pollution and thus tends to harm the quality

    Air pollution is not mentioned in the passage.

  5. Too Specific1% picked this

    It decreases the amount of time that parents spend in enjoyable interactions

    The time spent in a car is suggested in the passage as taking away time from social interactions, but not necessarily from spending time with their children (second paragraph).

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