Reading Comprehension

PT147 · S2 · P1 · Q5 Muscle Memory

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Passage A Muscle memory is a puzzling phenomenon.

Topic

Muscle memory—why people regain muscle more quickly after losing it

Framework

Answer / Explain (both passages are examining potential explanations for the phenomenon of muscle memory)

Main Point

Both passages explore the question: Why do people quickly regain muscle after a break from training? Passage A proposes neural and psychological explanations, while Passage B presents recent scientific findings about persistent muscle cell nuclei as a potential mechanism for "muscle memory."

**Most Valuable Sentences:** - Passage A: (end P1) - Passage B: (end P3)

P1 (A): Introducing the Mystery of Muscle Memory

Muscle memory is a weird thing that bodybuilders often notice, but scientists barely talk about. After a break, people seem to gain muscle faster the second time—so there must be a real explanation.

P2 (A): Neural Explanation for Muscle Memory

One possible reason is that with training, you get better at using more muscle fibers because your neurons become more efficient. Even after taking a break, your nervous system may "remember" how to activate more fibers, making it easier to get strong again.

P3 (A): Psychological Explanation for Muscle Memory

Or maybe it’s not just physical: the first time you got strong, you were cautious. When you retrain, you’re more confident and push yourself faster, leading to quicker muscle gains.

5.

Given the style and tone of each passage, which one of the following is most likely to correctly describe the expected audience of each passage?

  1. Passage A: skeptics of the

    Passage B: people with personal

    Fails A

    If passage A were written for people skeptical that muscle memory existed, it would spend more of its time convincing the audience it exists. The majority of passage A is taking for granted that the phenomenon exists and just speculating what the possible cause of it would be. There's no reason to keep reading beyond that, but there's no great support that passage B is written for people with personal experience of muscle memory (i.e. bodybuilders).

    7% picked this

  2. Passage A: scientific researchers

    Passage B: athletic trainers and

    Opposite, if anything

    There's not really strong textual support to say the tone of either one better matches researchers vs. trainers / coaches. In terms of content, passage B, not A, is definitely the more hard-science passage, so passage B would skew toward science researchers. And since passage A contains a psychological explanation for muscle memory, it would be of more interest to athletic trainers / coaches.

    6% picked this

  3. Passage A: athletes who work

    Passage B: people who pursue

    Unsupported Relationship: trainer vs. self-train

    Nothing in these passages would allow us to draw a distinction based on whether the reader works with a trainer or trains by themselves. Passage A talks about "the first time you trained ... you increased weight cautiously". That sounds more like training on their own, so if anything this answer is reversed.

    2% picked this

  4. Correct

    Passage A: bodybuilders

    Passage B: a general audience

    Why this is right

    As my anticipation reveals, I wouldn't have been predicting this sort of split. It felt like both passages could equally be read by bodybuilders or a general audience. However, if we scan (desperately, because we hate all the other answers), looking for support, we see that the last paragraph is using the 2nd person pronoun "you" and speaking as though its audience will remember having trained before. The annoying thing about that is the 2nd person pronoun starts in the 2nd paragraph, in a very scientific, general-audience kind of way: It is well established that during weight lifting, only a small percentage of neurons are recruited. The more weight you lift, the more neurons involved. The 2nd person pronoun usage continues then for the rest of Passage A, so it sounds like it's just using "you" in the royal you sense. (Like when you're saying to someone, "You shouldn't flake on your friends. I don't mean you you. I mean anyone.") But LSAC must be leaning on this 3rd paragraph of passage A to support this answer. It just sounds like the author is commiserating with her audience; "Y'all remember how it was the first time we got jacked, right?" Meanwhile, passage B doesn't have any specific parts that make it seem like it's aimed at a general audience. A general audience is just the default audience, if it doesn't otherwise sound too technical or too insular.

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

    61% picked this

  5. Passage A: sports psychologists

    Passage B: exercise physiologists

    Unsupported: sports vs. exercise

    There's nothing in the tone or content of either passage that skews towards sports vs. exercise, or vice-versa. Both passages seem to be aimed at exercise, i.e. body building / weightlifting.

    25% picked this

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