What does it mean if someone says that an object in a story symbolic

Ineed . read the passage, and choose the two (2) inferences that are most firmly based on the given information. according to one joke, scientists are now using lawyers instead of rats in laboratory experiments. there are three reasons for this change. for one thing, there are more lawyers than rats. for another, the scientists become less emotionally attached to the lawyers. and finally, certain things are so disgusting that rats won’t do them. 1. a lawyer must have made up this joke. 2. some people feel there are too many lawyers. 3. lawyers have the reputation of being willing to do anything. 4. scientists have the reputation of