PrepTest 149, Section 2, Question 13
Passage A Comedians are not amused when their(497 more words not shown)
Passage A(293 more words not shown)
Passage B(212 more words not shown)
Both passages are primarily concerned(8 more words not shown)
- Athe legal protections(6 more words not shown)
- Bthe connection between(16 more words not shown)
- Cthe extent to(21 more words not shown)
- Dthe practical considerations(13 more words not shown)
- Ethe ways in(13 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We've already predicted the shared idea: professionals can protect their creative work through social norms when the legal route offers little practical help. A gives us comedians and their jokes; B gives us chefs and their recipes.
What we’re looking for
So the shared topic is more specific than intellectual property generally. We want the substitution: what takes the place of a lawsuit or other formal protection?
Working the answers
- A
Legal protections are part of the setup. The central discussion explains how people protect their work when those protections are ineffective or seldom used. This leaves out the informal alternative both authors develop.
- B
Enforcement and creative incentives matter in A: sanctions protect comedians' material and help sustain new work. But B primarily identifies three norms and the legal functions they resemble. It does not develop the same enforcement-to-incentive connection, so this is not the best description of both investigations.
- C
Neither author weighs creators' rights against the public benefit of access. B says an innovation can be protected by a norm even when the information is public, but that is not an argument balancing those competing values.
- D
A explains why comedians avoid lawsuits: cost and uncertain success. B reports that chefs seldom use trade-secrecy law without explaining that choice. More broadly, the question is how these groups protect their work, not merely why they forgo one route.
- ECorrect
This captures the common pattern. Social consequences protect comedians' jokes, while chefs' rules limit copying, protect secrets, and preserve credit. Different professions illustrate the same use of norms as substitutes for law.
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