Self-paced
Watching music videos from the 1970s would give the viewer the impression that the music of the time was dominated by synthesizer pop and punk rock. ███ ████ █████ ██ █ ██████████ ███████████ ███████ █████ ██████ ████ █ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████████ █████████ ████████████ ██████████
Unrepresentative Samples
This argument identifies a particular sample ('70s music videos) as unrepresentative (skewed toward cutting-edge musicians) and therefore likely to give a misleading impression of the broader category (music of the '70s). That's the template you should bring into the answer choices.
Reasoning of this kind is common on the LSAT, and you should absolutely aspire to proactively recognize it when it appears.
17.
Which one of the following █████████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
a
Our view of ██████████████████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ████████ ██ ██████ ████████
(A)'s conclusion is too strong: rather than concluding our view of pre-printing-press literature is inaccurate, (A) concludes it cannot possibly ever be accurate. That's a meaningful leap in logical strength.
(A) should arguably survive your shallow dip, though, because it preserves the stimulus' general "unrepresentative sample" reasoning.
b
Our memory of █████ ██ █████ █████ ██████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ███ █████ █████ ██████
(B) lacks the stimulus' "unrepresentative sample" reasoning. At its best, (B) claims we have an accurate (not misleading) impression of '60s TV because the sample we have access to is large (not unrepresentative).
c
Future generations' understanding ██ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ███████
(C) identifies a particular sample (CD-ROMs) as unrepresentative (skewed toward gamers) and therefore likely to give a misleading impression of the broader category (publishers). That's a match with our stimulus.
d
Our understanding of ██████ █████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ████████████ ████ █████
The cleanest reason to dismiss (D) is the difference between incomplete and inaccurate. There's no indication that the sample of silent films we have is unrepresentative, and no conclusion that our impression of the silent film era is therefore misleading.
e
Our notion of ███████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ █████ ████████ ████████████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███ ████████ ██████████
(E) should fail your shallow dip when it concludes our impression will be accurate rather than inaccurate. The word "probably" is also a red flag, since the stimulus' claims are all certain rather than probable.