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jenniferyclo589
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Hi everyone,

So bewildered by this question that I have to post on the discussion forum. Why is answer choice E correct??? After analyzing all the answer choices, it seems to me that NONE of the answer choices is even close to being correct. If someone can see a flaw in my reasoning, please advise.

Missing Assumption: the higher amount of pollutants in the Baltic Sea is making the Baltic seals more susceptible/succumb-able to viral diseases and therefore is what's causing the higher rate of viral deaths in Baltic seals (compared to Scottish seals).

In other words, we're assuming that it is not some alternative cause that's causing the higher viral death rate in the Baltic seals (for example, what if the viruses infecting the 2 islands are different, and the virus in the Baltic sea is just more deadly than the virus in the Scottish sea?)

A: Irrelevant - doesn't make it more believable that the higher rate of viral deaths in B is due to pollutants. Knowing more about the Scottish seals doesn't really matter here!

B: Might've be a potential strengthener if it said "Baltic seals" instead of "Scottish seals", but even then we would have to make the assumption that the virus infecting the two islands were the same kind of virus in order for us to see this as a strengthener.

However, it's still talking about the Scottish seals, which again is not what we care about!

C: Easiest choice to eliminate. Irrelevant!

D : "The kinds of pollutants" is irrelevant to our discussion here, because we care about the amount and not type of pollutants. In other words, even if the pollutants are different between the 2 islands are different, I'm not more convinced that the higher amount of pollutants in B is what resulted in the higher rate of viral deaths in B.

E: Also irrelevant to the issue at hand! Even if the viral death rate was higher for other sea mammals in the Baltic sea, it doesn't make me believe more that it is SPECIFICALLY the pollutants that are causing the higher viral death rates! The only thing this AC does for me is convince me that there is certainly something different between the Baltic and Scottish seas that's making the Baltic seals die more from viral diseases, however we have no idea if that "something" is pollutants or if it's something else! For example, given the additional info in E, it could still very well be that it is NOT the pollutants causing the higher viral death rates, but a deadlier virus that infects all marine mammals in the Baltic seas - because the virus in the Baltic sea is different and deadlier than the virus in the Scottish sea, the seals die more from this virus in the Baltic seas (than in the Scottish seas from the weaker virus). It could still very well be that the higher level of pollutants in the Baltic seals' blood is just a coincidence and not the real cause of their higher viral death rate.

If you see where I've gone wrong in my reasoning, please help!

Admin Note: https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-23-section-3-question-13/

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PrepTests ·
PT23.S3.Q12
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jenniferyclo589
Tuesday, Nov 8, 2022

#help

I do have a question with answer choice E:

My reasoning is that, the issue with the stimulus' argument is a coincidence/causation problem, and to strengthen the argument, we need to somehow make it more believable that it is the pollutants, and not anything else (e.g. different strains of virus in the two different islands), that led to the higher viral death rate in the Baltic islands. However, how does E do that? It just says that other sea mammals in the Baltic islands also had a higher viral death rate than in the Scottish islands, but this also could've happened if the strain of virus in the Baltic islands was much more deadly and also affect other marine animals.

Can someone help guide me through the reasoning?

1
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PT23.S2.Q13
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jenniferyclo589
Monday, Nov 7, 2022

#help

My problems with this question:

1) What role does the last sentence play in the argument? Because from JY's explanation, it seems like the last sentence is just fluff placed there to distract us. However, if that's the case, then why can we say that the first sentence alone is an argument? From my perspective, it seems like the first sentence is simply a conclusion (i.e. "we shouldn't place these people in a top leadership position"), and no support is given whatsoever for that conclusion. In that case, the stimulus really isn't an argument but simply a point made, and we're trying to find a principle that would most conform with this point(?)

This is what confused me the most ^^ because if the stimulus is simply a conclusion, then what we're being asked to do is very different from a normal principle/PSA question.

2) The assumption that we have to make that"commanding a missile wing, a bomber squadron, or a contingent of fighter jets" are important roles is, to me, too far-stretched. I get that we need to assume certain things are true in the world when doing LR questions (e.g. the laws of physics hold), but to assume that the roles listed are "important" doesn't really seem fit to me. From my perspective, for this question, the only thing we could (and should) assume is that the roles listed are sub-roles to the core role of "leading from the top of the military" - in other words, "commanding a missile wing" is a rank that's lower than "commanding the entire military". To assume that "commanding a missile wing" or "commanding a bomber squadron" are important jobs just doesn't seem right to me - for all we know, these could be roles that, while still part of the leadership structure in the military, are really insignificant compared to other leadership positions in the leadership chain.

Would love to have anyone pitch in different opinions, because from where I'm at right now, this question is really bothering me and I really hope someone can guide me in a right direction if my thought process is wrong.

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PrepTests ·
PT130.S3.Q18
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jenniferyclo589
Saturday, Oct 1, 2022

#help

I absolutely cannot understand JY's logic at all in this explanation video, but I got the question right using my own reasoning.

My focus was on the "either EZ should be banned or TSX should be legalized." I thought that the concept being tested here was the "inclusive/exclusive or" and thought that in this case, the "either... or" best fits the "inclusive or". In that case, according to the conclusion, one of the following 3 scenarios should happen:

1) T Legal, EZ Legal

2) T Banned, EZ Banned

3) (inclusive or scenario) T Legal, EZ Banned

I then moved to the answer choices and analyzed them using each of the scenarios. A and B are inconsistent with the passage based on Scenario 1, and E is inconsistent with the passage based on Scenario 2. However, it seems like both C and D are consistent with the passage, so I just went with my gut feeling and chose D when I was doing the question under a time crunch.

After coming back to the question and reviewing it, I came to the conclusion that C is irrelevant to the conclusion at hand, because we're not interested in knowing the conditional relationship in C. However, I'm not quite satisfied with this conclusion since I don't think it's logically air-tight. I was also wondering if my reasoning was correct (albeit different from JY's), or if my reasoning was complete bs and I should seriously re-analyze this question. Would love some feedback and help on this. Thanks!

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PT106.S1.Q18
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jenniferyclo589
Tuesday, Aug 30, 2022

Seeing that you posted this comment 6 months ago you might no longer need an explanation, but this is how I thought of it:

Conclusion: Even though the way science is conducted and regulated could be changed, we need to determine whether the changes are worth their costs.

A: "We should not make changes that will alter the character of science"

Incorrect - the conclusion is saying that we need to determine whether changes to science are worth their costs; it is NOT saying that we should not make any changes (e.g. maybe after evaluating the costs we decide that the benefit of the change outweighs the cost of the change). Also, the "character of science" isn't mentioned anywhere in the conclusion statement!

B: "If we regulate science more closely, we will change the character of science

Incorrect - again, the "character of science" is only mentioned at the very end of the passage, and is nowhere in the conclusion. Also, this answer choice isn't supported by the passage - the passage talks about examples of how some changes to science can have great costs, and that doesn't support this statement.

C: "The regulation of science and the conducting of science can be changed

Incorrect - this is a great trick answer choice, since the conclusion DOES mention that the regulation and conducting of science can be changed. However, it doesn't refer to the ENTIRE conclusion - the important part about the costs of changes is omitted from this answer choice, and therefore it only express a PART of the conclusion and not the entire main point of the passage.

D: "The imposition of restrictions on the conduct of science would be very costly"

Incorrect - another trick answer choice, however much easier to identify: the passage doesn't tell us that changes of regulation of science would be very costly, it tells us that we need to evaluate the potential benefit and cost of each change to determine if the change was worth it.

E: "We need to be aware of the impact of change in science before changes are made"

Correct - a great re-phrasing of the conclusion!

As for your question of how the last sentence supports the conclusion -

The conclusion talks about weighing the benefits vs costs of a change, and the last sentence talks directly about the cost of potential "massive interventions".

1
PrepTests ·
PT23.S3.Q24
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jenniferyclo589
Tuesday, Aug 30, 2022

#help

Can someone map out the reasoning of the passage using simple symbols? This passage is SO confusing :(

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PrepTests ·
PT21.S2.Q1
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jenniferyclo589
Tuesday, Aug 30, 2022

#help

Couple of different questions/problems that prohibited me from understanding the passage correctly:

1) How do we know that the "them" in the first sentence ("most voters pay them scant attention") refers to "editorialists" and not "politicians" or "attacks"? I thought that the "them" was referring to "attacks", which made me interpret the sentence as "voters barely pay attention to the politician's personal attacks". I thought that it also made more sense for "them" to refer to "attacks" because then the second sentence would make sense too - "everyone knows that politicians can be excused for mudslinging later, so voters pay the attacks little attention". Can someone help with this process of identifying which antecedent a pronoun refers to?

2) After watching the video, I still don't really get why political commentators can't be excused for mudslinging - isn't mudslinging basically throwing personal attacks so that attention would be diverted from the actual, concrete argument at hand? If that's the case, doesn't the last sentence of the passage essentially say that in political commentators' debates, personal attacks are used for mudslinging? Doesn't that make the whole argument unsound (i.e. no real reason was provided for why political commentators can't be excused for mudslinging)?

Thanks!

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