LSAT PrepTest 44 Section 2 Question 13 Explanation | Logical Reasoning

I didn't write the following blog post. It was already on the blog when I took over the URL. The following blog post may contain mistakes. -Steve

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Here's a Logical Reasoning question from the October 2004 LSAT.

As usual, let's make a quick chain of phrases to show the argument's progression.

Enviro problems --> change habits if not government's fault --> Won't change unless economic --> Few changes unless economic

Do you see the gap here? This is where the logic breaks down. The argument goes from saying that few habit changes will happen unless they're economic to saying that few changes of any sort will happen unless they're economic. What if a lot of the problems are the government's problem? In that case, maybe the solution needn't be economically enticing for change to happen. So, the argument's conclusion wouldn't follow then. That's the jump, the argument's blind spot.

Let's pre-phrase what the argument's assuming. It's something like "most problems are not caused by government mismanagement." We see immediately that this fits choice A very well. Let's quickly go through the other choices:

A) Correct.

B) Totally out of the argument's scope. The argument says only that solutions directed at consumers need to be economic, not that solutions directed at government mismanagement cannot be economic. No such assumption is needed.

C) Out of the argument's scope. It says only that for consumer-directed solutions to work, they must be economically enticing, not that they necessarily can be.

D) Out of scope again. This is the converse of the assumption we're looking for. We want something that says the argument assumes that "most serious problems are not the result of government," not a choice that says "most problems that aren't the result of government are serious," as this one does. It would be easy to get tripped up here, but notice that these two similarly-worded statements are actually saying opposite things that are not at all equivalent.

E) The opposite of what we want. We want a choice that says that most problems are not the government's fault and require changes in consumer habits, but this choice is saying that most problems can't be solved by changing consumer habits. That isn't the right assumption to make this argument work.

Remember:

1) Use a chain of phrases and find the jump in the reasoning on assumption questions.

2) Watch out for answer choices that are beyond the argument's scope (be sure to know just what the argument is and isn't saying!) or are the opposite of the answer we need.