PT12.S1.Q1

PrepTest 12 - Section 1 - Question 1

Want a diagram-free walkthrough?

Hide analysis

Support It is probably within the reach of human technology to make the climate of Mars inhabitable. ██ █████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██████ ██████ █████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ █████████ ████████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ████ █ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██████ ████████████ ████████ ███ ████████████ ████████ ██ █████████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ██ █████████████ ███████████ ███████ █████████████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ██████

Argument Breakdown: Implicit Main Conclusion

We're looking for the main conclusion of this argument, which means identifying the claim supported by the rest of the argument. Here, that's tricky because (spoiler alert) the main conclusion is implied, not explicitly stated. But we can still figure out what it is by seeing what idea is supported by the claims we're given.

A key clue in this argument is the conditional statement that if there's even a chance current research efforts to make Mars inhabitable might succeed, then they're justified. The sufficient condition of this statement is affirmed when the argument says we can probably make Mars inhabitable—so we can infer the necessary condition is also affirmed. This already indicates a conclusion that research efforts are justified.

And what about the rest of the argument? The other claims also support the idea that research efforts are justified. The argument gives us an analogy to other long-term, but valuable projects to suggest that the difficulty of the task shouldn't be a deterrent. It also gives the independent justification that this research could have other benefits for life on Earth. All of this points to the conclusion that the research efforts are justified, so that's what we'll look for in the answer choices.

Show answer
1.

The main point of the ████████ ██ ████

a

it is probably ███████████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████

This is stated in the argument, but as a supporting factual claim, not the conclusion itself. This claim triggers the conditional statement that if there's even a chance current research efforts might succeed, then they're justified, leading to the unstated conclusion that the research efforts are in fact justified.

Another way to tell that (A) isn't the main conclusion is that it doesn't receive support from the rest of the argument. There's no other claim that would convince us it truly is probable that we could make Mars inhabitable. The argument just states this as a fact.

24%
b

it would take ███████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███████████

The argument says this might be true, but never that it would definitely take several centuries for this result. Plus, there's no support given for the timeline of centuries proposed by the argument.

2%
c

making Mars inhabitable ██ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ████████ █ █████ ██████ ██ █████████

The argument does imply this in using an analogy between making Mars inhabitable and great temples and cathedrals, but this supports the main conclusion rather than itself being a conclusion. The analogy helps to convince us of the unstated conclusion that the research efforts discussed are justified.

2%
d

research efforts aimed ██ ███████████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ███ █████████

Although this claim is not explicitly stated in the argument, it's nonetheless the main conclusion supported by the rest of the argument. Everything else in the argument is designed to convince us this unstated conclusion is true.

The argument tells us that research efforts are justified if there's any chance they could succeed, and that they could succeed. We also get a supporting analogy and some independent benefits to further convince us the research is justified.

69%
e

efforts to change ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ██████████ █████████████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████

The argument makes this claim, but not as a conclusion—there's no support given to back it up. Instead, this supports the conclusion that research on making Mars inhabitable is justified.

2%

Answer five questions and we'll estimate your score.

It takes about five minutes.

Take the free diagnostic
More free LSAT prep: Sample LSAT questions Full-length diagnostic & practice test All free LSAT resources

Confirm action

Are you sure?