400-820-0859常春藤LSAT频道在此与大家分享LSAC官网上公布的LSAT阅读理解样题（三），希望对大家备考LSAT阅读理解有所帮助。
Passage for Questions 6 and 7
In economics, the term “speculative bubble” refers to a large upward move in an asset’s price driven not by the asset’s fundamentals—that is, by the earnings derivable from the asset—but rather by mere speculation that someone else will be willing to pay a higher price for it. The price increase is then followed by a dramatic decline in price, due to a loss in confidence that the price will continue to rise, and the “bubble” is said to have burst. According to Charles Mackay’s classic nineteenth-century account, the seventeenth-century Dutch tulip market provides an example of a speculative bubble. But the economist Peter Garber challenges Mackay’s view, arguing that there is no evidence that the Dutch tulip market really involved a speculative bubble.
By the seventeenth century, the Netherlands had become a center of cultivation and development of new tulip varieties, and a market had developed in which rare varieties of bulbs sold at high prices. For example, a Semper Augustus bulb sold in 1625 for an amount of gold worth about U.S. $11,000 in 1999. Common bulb varieties, on the other hand, sold for very low prices. According to Mackay, by 1636 rapid price rises attracted speculators, and prices of many varieties surged upward from November 1636 through January 1637. Mackay further states that in February 1637 prices suddenly collapsed; bulbs could not be sold at 10 percent of their peak values. By 1739, the prices of all the most prized kinds of bulbs had fallen to no more than one two-hundredth of 1 percent of Semper Augustus’s peak price.
Garber acknowledges that bulb prices increased dramatically from 1636 to 1637 and eventually reached very low levels. But he argues that this episode should not be described as a speculative bubble, for the increase and eventual decline in bulb prices can be explained in terms of the fundamentals. Garber argues that a standard pricing pattern occurs for new varieties of flowers. When a particularly prized variety is developed, its original bulb sells for a high price. Thus, the dramatic rise in the price of some original tulip bulbs could have resulted as tulips in general, and certain varieties in particular, became fashionable. However, as the prized bulbs become more readily available through reproduction from the original bulb, their price falls rapidly; after less than 30 years, bulbs sell at reproduction cost. But this does not mean that the high prices of original bulbs are irrational, for earnings derivable from the millions of bulbs descendent from the original bulbs can be very high, even if each individual descendent bulb commands a very low price. Given that an original bulb can generate a reasonable return on investment even if the price of descendent bulbs decreases dramatically, a rapid rise and eventual fall of tulip bulb prices need not indicate a speculative bubble.
Question 6
The phrase “standard pricing pattern” as used in the middle of the last paragraph most nearly means a pricing pattern
against which other pricing patterns are to be measured
that conforms to a commonly agreed-upon criterion
that is merely acceptable
that regularly recurs in certain types of cases
that serves as an exemplar
Explanation for Question 6
This question requires the test taker to understand from context the meaning of the phrase “standard pricing pattern,” which is used by the author in a particular way.
The correct answer choice is (D). The phrase occurs in the last paragraph of the passage. The purpose of this paragraph is to detail Garber’s reasons for thinking that, contrary to Mackay’s view, theseventeenth-century Dutch tulip market did not involve a speculative bubble. It is in this context that the author uses the phrase in question. The complete sentence reads, “Garber argues that a standard pricing pattern occurs for new varieties of flowers.” The author then explains this standard pricing pattern: original bulbs for prized new varieties initially command a high price, but descendants produced from the original bulbs cost dramatically less over time. It is clear that the author takes Garber to be describing a regularly recurring pattern about the pricing of new varieties of flowers, and then asserting that the particular details about the pricing of tulip bulbs in the seventeenth century fit this recurring pattern. Thus, answer choice (D) is correct, since it paraphrases the use of the term “standard pricing pattern” as a pricing pattern “that regularly recurs in certain types of cases.”
Answer choice (A) is incorrect. Nowhere does the author suggest that pricing patterns can or should be “measured” against one another, much less against a pricing pattern that is for some reason taken to be the benchmark.
Answer choice (B) is incorrect. The passage as a whole does concern the interpretation of the pricing of tulip bulbs in the seventeenth-century, and it might be said that the debate between Mackay and Garber concerns whether this case fits commonly agreed-upon criteria regarding speculative bubbles. However, in the middle of the last paragraph Garber’s point is simply about prices fitting a pattern observed in a number of other cases. In this way, it is a point about conformance to a historical pattern, not to agreed-upon standards.
Answer choice (C) is incorrect. There is no reason to think that the author views pricing patterns as “acceptable” or unacceptable, or that the author believes there is a standard for acceptability.
Answer choice (E) is incorrect. An “exemplar” would be a particular case that serves as some kind of model or ideal. No particular case is being offered up as a model in the third paragraph. Instead the “standard pricing pattern” is only described generally, not by reference to some paradigm example of the pattern Garber has in mind.
Based on the number of test takers who answered this question correctly when it appeared on the LSAT, this was a difficult question.
Question 7
Given Garber’s account of the seventeenth-century Dutch tulip market, which one of the following is most analogous to someone who bought a tulip bulb of a certain variety in that market at a very high price, only to sell a bulb of that variety at a much lower price?
someone who, after learning that many others had withdrawn their applications for a particular job, applied for the job in the belief that there would be less competition for it
an art dealer who, after paying a very high price for a new painting, sells it at a very low price because it is now considered to be an inferior work
someone who, after buying a box of rare motorcycle parts at a very high price, is forced to sell them at a much lower price because of the sudden availability of cheap substitute parts
a publisher who pays an extremely high price for a new novel only to sell copies at a price affordable to nearly everyone
an airline that, after selling most of the tickets for seats on a plane at a very high price, must sell the remaining tickets at a very low price
Explanation for Question 7
This question requires the test taker to identify the scenario that is most analogous to the way in which Garber would view the purchase of a tulip bulb at a very high price, and the later sale of tulip bulbs of that same variety at a much lower price. Before looking at the answer choices, it is worth getting clear on the specifics of Garber’s account. In Garber’s view, the value of the original bulb reflects the earnings that can be made from the descendant bulbs. Since an original bulb will produce multiple descendants, the value of the original will be much greater than the value of any individual descendant. The value of the original reflects the cumulative value of the descendants. Thus, someone could buy an original bulb at a very high price and still turn a profit by selling descendant bulbs at a much lower price.
The correct answer choice is (D). The relation between the manuscript of a new novel and the copies that can be made of that novel is analogous to the relation between an original bulb and its descendants. From the original novel, the publisher can produce many copies. The copies can then be sold for a much lower price than the original. The value of the new novel reflects the cumulative value of the sales of the copies.
Answer choice (A) is incorrect. The scenario described does not include anything akin to the relationship between an original bulb and later descendants. Instead, it presents an example of someone who applies for a job based on a perception about the degree of competition for that job.
Answer choice (B) is incorrect. In this scenario, the value of the painting has dropped due to critical or public opinion. This represents a case in which the art dealer has taken a loss, not one where the art dealer recoups the original value of the painting through an accumulation of smaller sales.
Answer choice (C) is incorrect. On the surface, the drop in price of the motorcycle parts due to a flooded market of replacement parts seems similar to the drop in price of the bulbs of a variety of flowers. However, the situation is disanalogous in crucial respects. The cheap substitute parts cannot be described as anything like “descendants” of the original rare parts, and the owner of the box of rare parts does not get the value back through the cumulative sales of the cheap replacements. Indeed, the owner of the box of rare motorcycle parts was simply forced to sell the parts at a loss.
Answer choice (E) is incorrect. The airline had a certain number of seats for which they could sell tickets. The drop in price over time is not a product of increased availability, as in the case of the flower bulbs. In this case, the number of available seats has actually decreased. While it is surely rational for the airline to reduce the price of the seats, the situation is not analogous to the drop in price of descendant flower bulbs.
Based on the number of test takers who answered this question correctly when it appeared on the LSAT, this was a difficult question.
