LSAT 143 | Section 2 | Reading Comprehension: Q24

RC Question 24 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The passage suggests that the atomic structure…

DISCUSSION: Lines 9-19 cover the atomic structure of glass. Liquid and solid glass are not the same. When solid glass is heated to the glass transition temperature, it changes to a liquid glass structure. Below that, it has the properties of a solid.

Lines 39-43 imply that when glass is heated to the transition temperature, it will flow. (“To have more than a negligible rate of flow” implies that glass will develop faster flow at increasing temperatures.)

Honestly, it takes a lot of work to eliminate answers here. It’s not worth the effort to conclusively prove them wrong. I think the right answer is pretty straightforward if you got the main idea of the passage: glass doesn’t flow as a solid, will flow if heated. Pick D, move on, figure the rest out on review.

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1. Actually lines 18-19 say that glass behaves as a solid unless it is heated to the glass transition temperature.
2. This answer contradicts the passage. Lines 31-34 say that it would take solid glass trillions of years to sag.
3. Lines 10-19, taken as a whole, say that glass will be a solid below its transition temperature, and a liquid above the transition temperature.
   The author says that “it takes on the properties of a solid” when glass passes below the transition temperature, which implies that glass had liquid properties above the the transition temperature.
4. CORRECT. This is strongly supported. Glass is a liquid above the transition temperature, and liquids flow. Lines 39-43 say that glass will have a more than negligible flow rate when heated above 350 degrees celsius.
5. Nonsense. Lines 9-10 say that the atoms in glass are not arranged in a fixed crystalline structure. This doesn’t change above or below the transition temperature. (See lines 10-12: liquid and solid glass have very similar structures, but behave differently.)