LNAT Practice Passage 1: North and South

The opening is concerned with the expressions "the North" and "the South" themselves: what areas they refer to, where one supposedly ends and the other begins, and what kind of division they are meant to describe. The inverted commas therefore mark them as conventional labels which the writer is taking as the subject of examination rather than simply using without comment. Trap: D is tempting because the passage goes on to question the precision of the North-South distinction. But the inverted commas in the opening primarily signal that the labels themselves are being discussed, not that the writer has already rejected what they represent.

• A The opening is concerned with the expressions "the North" and "the South" themselves: what areas they refer to, where one supposedly ends and the other begins, and what kind of division they are meant to describe. The inverted commas therefore mark them as conventional labels which the writer is taking as the subject of examination rather than simply using without comment.
• B The inverted commas do emphasise the expressions by making them more noticeable, but the writer is not using them to make an economic point.
• C Government statistics are discussed later in the passage, but the expressions are not introduced as quotations from official terminology.
• D The writer questions how precisely the labels can be applied, but he does not claim that they have no geographical meaning at all. Indeed, he later accepts that genuine regional patterns can exist.

Scotland and England provide a case in which the question "where does one end and the other begin?" has a geographical answer. The absence of an equivalent line for northern and southern England is used to question the assumption that these are naturally fixed categories rather than looser ways of grouping places. Trap: C states something the comparison genuinely shows. B identifies why the writer uses the comparison in the argument.

• A The writer does not require an agreed boundary for policy; his concern is that broad labels can obscure particular places and problems.
• B Scotland and England provide a case in which the question "where does one end and the other begin?" has a geographical answer. The absence of an equivalent line for northern and southern England is used to question the assumption that these are naturally fixed categories rather than looser ways of grouping places.
• C This is entirely true: the comparison does establish that there is no corresponding official boundary. It is nevertheless narrower than the purpose of the comparison. The missing boundary is evidence used in the writer's broader challenge to the apparent precision of the North-South distinction.
• D The shifting treatment of the Midlands shows looseness in the labels, not that it belongs to neither category.

The example helps undermine the assumption that a broad regional description tells us what conditions will be found throughout the region. Deprivation can occur within the supposedly prosperous South just as prosperity can occur within the supposedly poorer North. Trap: A is deliberately strong because it is plainly true about the example. C explains why that example has been introduced into the larger argument.

• A This is true of the example. Southern coastal deprivation demonstrates directly that deprivation exists outside northern England. But the writer places it alongside prosperous places in the North and differences within regions in order to make a wider point.
• B Nothing in the passage suggests creating a separate economic category for coastal towns.
• C The example helps undermine the assumption that a broad regional description tells us what conditions will be found throughout the region. Deprivation can occur within the supposedly prosperous South just as prosperity can occur within the supposedly poorer North.
• D The writer explicitly rejects the conclusion that these complications make regional inequalities imaginary. The example qualifies how the North-South pattern should be interpreted rather than disproving its existence.

The writer treats the labels as imperfect descriptions of genuine regional differences, but also shows how they can affect decisions. A graduate may move because of expectations about where serious careers are found, while an employer may locate another job in the South because of assumptions about recruitment. Those decisions can then reinforce some of the patterns associated with the labels. Trap: Do not assume that because a label is an incomplete explanation of a pattern it cannot also influence that pattern. The paragraph distinguishes between the forces which originally produce regional inequality and the expectations which may subsequently help to reproduce some of it.

• A The writer accepts that regional inequalities have causes beyond the labels themselves, but the examples of the Leeds graduate and the London employer show that expectations associated with those labels can also alter behaviour. The paragraph expressly says that enough decisions of this kind can change where jobs and graduates end up.
• B The paragraph does describe a possible self-reinforcing process, but this option takes it too far. The writer repeatedly insists that regional inequality is real and does not suggest that North-South differences are largely created by stereotypes about them.
• C The final part of the paragraph says that government can make “a comparable mistake” by acting on broad regional categories. The fact that funding is eventually received by particular councils, firms and households does not make the original regional classification reliable.
• D The writer treats the labels as imperfect descriptions of genuine regional differences, but also shows how they can affect decisions. A graduate may move because of expectations about where serious careers are found, while an employer may locate another job in the South because of assumptions about recruitment. Those decisions can then reinforce some of the patterns associated with the labels.