LSAT 159 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q12

RC Question 12 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Which one of the following principles underlies …

DISCUSSION: Passage A spends a lot of time on how spectators in sports develop discriminating judgment because many of them once played sports themselves so they understand the rules and what counts as good performance.

Passage B, in contrast, talks about the aesthetic experience of watching sports, not about how audience knowledge is gained.

So look for a principle about how experience or participation shapes one’s ability to judge excellence. That idea is key to Passage A but doesn’t appear in Passage B.

___________

1. Neither discusses timeless popularity.
2. Passage B kind of says this in the last sentence, but this isn’t mentioned in A.
3. Passage A isn’t about achieving excellence but about recognizing it as a spectator.
4. Knowledge of rules matters, but Passage A says that knowledge helps people judge excellence, not that it’s required to achieve excellence.
5. CORRECT. Passage A supports this: it says sports fans’ discriminating judgment comes from having played the game, meaning serious participation builds sound judgment. This idea doesn’t appear in B.