LSAT 109 – Section 1 – Question 04

LSAT 109 - Section 1 - Question 04

December 2000

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT109 S1 Q04
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Link Assumption +LinkA
A
1%
158
B
6%
163
C
3%
161
D
91%
167
E
0%
159
120
127
145
 +Easiest 148.877 +SubsectionMedium

Juan: Unlike the ancient Olympic games on which they are based, the modern Olympics include professional as well as amateur athletes. But since amateurs rarely have the financial or material resources available to professionals, it is unlikely that the amateurs will ever offer a serious challenge to professionals in those Olympic events in which amateurs compete against professionals. Hence, the presence of professional athletes violates the spirit of fairness essential to the games.

Michiko: But the idea of the modern Olympics is to showcase the world’s finest athletes, regardless of their backgrounds or resources. Hence, professionals should be allowed to compete.

Summarize Argument
Juan argues that allowing professional athletes to compete alongside amateurs in the Olympics violates the games’ essential spirit of fairness. This is because professionals usually have access to more resources than amateurs. Juan claims that amateurs are thus unlikely to ever seriously challenge the professionals against whom they compete.

Notable Assumptions
Juan assumes that a significant number of amateur athletes would be more able to challenge professional athletes if they had access to more financial and material resources. In other words, he assumes that amateurs’ current lack of resources hinders their performance.

A
In general, amateur athletes tend to outnumber professional athletes in the modern Olympics.
This does not weaken Juan’s argument. First, if there are more amateurs and they still rarely challenge professionals, that just strengthens the appearance of inequality. Second, this doesn’t address the question of how much resources actually make a difference.
B
In certain events in the modern Olympics the best few competitors are amateurs; in certain other events the best few competitors are professionals.
This does not weaken Juan’s argument. Juan only talks about events where amateurs and professionals compete—we don’t know if that includes events where amateurs win. Also, even if amateurs sometimes beat professionals, that doesn’t rebut an argument about general trends.
C
The concept of “amateur” and “professional” athletics would have been unfamiliar to the ancient Greeks on whose games the modern Olympics are based.
This does not weaken Juan’s argument. The argument is specifically about the modern Olympic games (in other words, its domain is limited). This means that observations about the ancient Olympics are irrelevant.
D
In the modern Olympics there has been no noticeable correlation between the financial or material resources expended on the training of individual athletes and the eventual performance of those athletes.
This weakens Juan’s argument. If there’s no correlation between athletes’ access to resources and their performance, then Juan’s assumption that amateurs’ lack of resources hinders their performance is undermined. That removes support from the conclusion (i.e. weakens).
E
Many amateur athletes who take part in international competitions receive no financial or material support from the governments of the countries that the amateurs represent.
This does not weaken Juan’s argument. It just affirms Juan’s claim that amateurs have less access to resources than professionals, and doesn’t challenge the assumption that resources make a difference to athletic performance.

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LSAT PrepTest 109 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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