B is correct because the claim that sometimes people are truly happy when sleeping is a counter to the claim that a person is truly happy only when doing something, which is a premise to the claim that the best life is a life that is full of activity.

A is incorrect because it is a premise to the philosopher's argument, not Graham's.

C is incorrect because the example was drawn independently by the philosopher, not Graham.

D is incorrect because it is only used to disprove Graham's premise; the philosopher made no stance about his conclusion.

E is incorrect because the main conclusion of the philosopher's argument is actually that we should not be persuaded by Graham's argument.

@MaxThompson I think the student needs help distinguishing between the premise and the conclusion in Graham's argument; not in the passage as a whole. In the quoted bit, we can tell that the first half ("Graham argues that since a person is truly happy only when doing something,") is a premise for the second half ("the best life is a life that is full of activity.") because it lends support to the second half. But a more obvious way to see it is through the hidden indicator word, "since." If the LSAT writer had put the "since" in the beginning of the sentence, I'm sure a lot more people would have gotten this right!

A is correct because it correctly draws from both observations regarding the history of technology and how employers utilize it. In the first case, technology became widely used because it was economically attractive to employers ("it was economically attractive; many unskilled workers could be replaced by just a few skilled workers."). Today, employers are looking for technology that will allow them to further reduce expenses ("replace highly paid skilled workers").

B is incorrect because nothing in the stimulus says anything about education.

C is incorrect because the stimulus only ways that managers are LOOKING for technology that will allow them to replace the skilled workers, but it did not say that they were successful.

D is incorrect because nothing in the stimulus indicates that the number of jobs created is just as many as those eliminated by technology.

E is incorrect because nothing in the stimulus says anything about all industries.

E is correct because if E were negated and Acme's move to Ocean View will be accompanied by a significant pay raise for its employees, then it renders the initial reason provided for why most Acme employees will have to commute of more than 30 minutes ineffective. The initial argument provided was that most Acme employees cannot afford housing within a 30-minute commute of Ocean View, but if Acme's move is accompanied by a significant pay raise, then the employees might be able to afford it, opening up the possibility that many would move within a 30-minute commute.

A is incorrect because whether or not employees can afford housing within a 30-minute commute of Milltown is irrelevant to the argument about them having to commute more than 30 minutes to Ocean View.

B is incorrect because the reasons for moving the company are irrelevant.

C is incorrect because who favors the move are irrelevant to the argument.

D is incorrect because how long employees have to commute currently is irrelevant to evaluating how long they will have to commute after the move.

@CoolieMan If you negate B its relevance becomes apparent: if the argument that there is a fifth universal force is incompatible with previously established scientific results, then the argument is weakened. Granted, this strengthener is a relatively weak one, because it merely grants that a hypothesis is consistent with existing knowledge, without providing positive evidence for its existence.

@LiaWang

I chose A because I took that the quote "experiments have shown that keyboard configurations more efficient than QWERTY can double typing speed" implies that most people would have had to been able to type more quickly for the experiment results to hold true. However, this is incorrect because the "most people who have tried typing with non-QWERTY keyboards" referred to in the AC does not necessarily refer to those in the experiment; there could be a whole superset of people that have tried typing with non-QWERTY keyboards, and they could have had different results than that from the experiment.

I didn't choose E because I was having trouble finding any claim on if the keyboard had been designed for computers. I now see that E's conclusion is implied because the passage states that the keyboard was designed to limit typing speed because it was designed for the typewriter that would often jam, so if it were designed for the computer, then the original reason to limit typing speed disappears.

E is correct because the passage mentions that the QWERTY keyboard was designed to be awkward and limit typing speed because early typewriters would jam frequently otherwise, consequently implying that it was designed for typewriters. So this implies that if the keyboard had been designed for computers, then it would not have been designed to limit typing speed.

A is incorrect because nothing in the stimulus refers to what "most people" have done.

B is incorrect because the stimulus only implies that early QWERTY keyboards were less likely to jam than if those keyboards would lead to frequent adjacent keys struck in quick succession, and says nothing about more recent ones.

C is incorrect because nothing in the stimulus tells us what the designers would have or would not have proposed.

D is incorrect because not only does it get the cost-benefit analysis reversed, but it also grossly exaggerates what otherwise might be implied (after fixing the reversal).

@LiaWang I chose C because I decided that the assertion that "since bacteria are extremely diverse, it is unlikely that most types of bacteria hibernate regularly" can be consistent with the conditional, "if bacteria are extremely diverse, it is unlikely that most types of bacteria hibernate regularly." However, I only let this erroneous reasoning win because I was having a hard time finding a better answer. I did not choose B because I dismissed it on the grounds that I found "probably not true" to be different from "unlikely." Lesson learned: Probably not true can mean unlikely, and I need to take greater care in not confusing a conditional conclusion with an absolute conclusion.

@stephanieborsos959 Why would people downvote a happy dance :(

B is correct because it correctly capture the argument's main conclusion, that "it is unlikely that most types of bacteria hibernate regularly." Here, "unlikely" translates to "probably not true."

A is incorrect because the argument explicitly rejects this view with the claim that "it is unlikely that most types of bacteria hibernate regularly."

C is incorrect because the passage's conclusion is not a conditional one. It does not add "if bacteria are extremely diverse" as a condition before the conclusion can be drawn; rather, it asserts it to be true before drawing the conclusion.

D is incorrect because it is more of a concession to the microbiologists, not the main point of the passage.

E is incorrect because no where in the passage did it claim that only one bacteria hibernates regularly.

@LiaWang Kevin rocks too, don't get me wrong!

No more JY? *sniff*

@saulgoodman13 That's my thought too. I recall a live instructor telling me it's the dissimilarities that matter.

@mitch.s For 4, it specifically says "must" be assumed in order for the conclusion to be properly drawn. It does not mean that, once assumed, the conclusion can be properly drawn, as it might require more assumptions. The same goes for 21, where "must" is replaced with "necessary."

48 questions. Make it 50 :p

@Sophia.W_Li The whole point of his argument is that because we can't be sure if sea animals can experience pain, we need to err on the side of caution.

JY: This will probably be the hardest para questions in this set

My confidence:

@MarisolSanchez For the stimulus:

finger-print -> tannisch

------

thief -> /tannisch

Here, "/tannish" is implied by someone wearing gloves. For the answer:

food-eaten -> cafeteria

------

cause-of-sickness -> /cafeteria

Again, the "/cafeteria" follows from the claim that it's not from food. Hopefully, this diagramming further highlights how absurd the reasoning employed is.

Got it right but 50 seconds overtime.

Stimulus:

A -> B

/A -> C

-------

C -> /B

Answer choice A:

A -> B

C -> D

-------

/A -> /B

Answer choice B:

A -> B

/A -> C

-------

C -> /B

Answer choice C:

A -> B

-------

/A -> /B

Answer choice D:

A -> B

B -> C

-------

/C -> /A

Answer choice E:

A AND B -> C

-------

A AND D -> C

Since this is a bit more difficult to understand, here are the variables:

A = dislike exercise

B = not eat less

C = unlikely to lose weight

D = like to eat

E is correct because its structure matches the structure of the stimulus. The stimulus' structure is:

9-5 -> 15-cents

/9-5 -> 10-cents

-----------

/10-cents -> 15-cents

A -> B

/A -> C

----------

/C -> B

E's structure is:

lab-work -> laboratory

/lab-work -> classroom

----------

/classroom -> laboratory

A is incorrect because its structure is:

A -> B

/A -> C

--------

/A -> /B

B is incorrect because its structure is:

A -> B

/A -> C

--------

/C -> A

C is incorrect because its structure is:

A -> B

/A -> C

--------

C -> /B

D is incorrect because its structure is:

A -> B

/A -> C

--------

A -> /C

E is correct because its argument form matches the structure of the argument in the stimulus. For the stimulus:

auto-mechanic -m-> experience -m-> understand-circuits

----------

auto-mechanic -m-> understand-circuits

A -m-> B -m-> C

----------

A -m-> C

For E:

snow-company -m-> run-in-summer -m-> hire-workers

----------

snow-company -m-> hire-workers

A is incorrect because its structure is:

A -> B -c-> C

----------

A -c-> C

B is incorrect because its structure is:

A -m-> B -m-> C

----------

D

C is incorrect because its structure is:

A -m-> /B

-----------

c -m-> B

D is incorrect because its structure is:

A -m-> B

C -m-> D

-----------

A -m-> /B

@Willyc cuz the algorithm decided you need harder questions ;)