Muscle Memory

Answer choices

1. A

   Fails A6% picked this

   Passage A: skeptics of the phenomenon

   Passage B: people with personal experience of the phenomenon

   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).

   6%
2. B

   Opposite, if anything6% picked this

   Passage A: scientific

   Passage B: athletic trainers and

   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%
3. C

   Unsupported Relationship: trainer vs. self-train2% picked this

   Passage A: athletes who work with

   Passage B: people who pursue a fitness program on

   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%
4. D

   Correct61% picked this

   Passage A:

   Passage B: a general

   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%
5. E

   Unsupported: sports vs. exercise25% picked this

   Passage A: sports

   Passage B: 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%