I read "unexpectedly make a sizable profit" in C) to mean an outsized profit, enough to make publishing a series of unprofitable books worth it. Like, I don't think any of these books is going to be successful, but sometimes a book of intrinsic merit becomes a smash hit. I guess as I think about it, this doesn't really get at the point of why there's a decrease.

@MallikaMalhotra I definitely considered this while working on this one, but some students are adults. Maybe if it said elementary students?

The only thing holding me back from C is the mention of "close links with the culture of rural Mexico" when the passage appears to state the opposite:

Their novels are often simple in structure, and some of the common themes in these novels include the struggle to overcome the agricultural adversity that caused their families to emigrate, and a feeling of being distanced from the traditions of rural Mexico and yet striving to hold on to them.

I think the thing that threw me off here was that I don't find placing demands upon a reader to be the same as the novel being dull. I should've realized "divert" was referring to being more fun, but I dislike the first half of that one.

I have to agree that for most of my LSAT training I have been asking myself, "What?"

@LydiannaTrudel stimulus is healthy bones --> has sufficient calcium, therefore /healthy bones --> /sufficient calcium. this is flawed because it's confusing necessary and sufficient. (b) makes the same mistake; cake tastes good --> has the right amount of flour, therefore /tastes good --> /right amount of flour. (a) does not have this mistake. firm crust --> right temperature, therefore /right temp --> /firm crust. (a) doesn't have any mistakes, the logic is valid

todd barry fan getting sushi at the cincinnati airport

Writing this for my own benefit, but the mistake in intuition I made was thinking necessary assumptions should be making the conclusion incorrect, but they're making the argument incorrect. C) does not make the idea "any gardening book that does not explain the basics is flawed" impossible, since there could be some other basic. But it does make the argument incorrect, since there's no basis in the premises for the conclusion.

@AshlynMiller you get scratch paper with the LSAT

I was confused by C, which looked wrong to me. "Low costs" are not supported by the text, "lower rates" are supported. What if broadcast networks offer really high rates, but cable networks offer lower but still high costs?

ice cream causes drownings because you're supposed to wait to go swimming after you eat

I'm imagining a sentence like "the majority of people believe x, but the overwhelming majority believe y." Is it reasonable to assume people who believe y is greater than people believe x?

@HenryLehmann You'd say "Jane is a faster runner than Mary or Jon," and I don't think anyone would reasonably interpret that as them running combined. I think it's just a quirk of the language that you have to know.