PT55.S1.Q15 - Zach's Coffeehouse schedules free poetry

akistotle

I have a question about "almost every Wednesday" in PT55 S1 Q15.
https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-55-section-1-question-15/

When I read this question, I thought the statement "almost every Wednesday" prevented having free poetry readings on every Wednesday.

So I diagrammed like this:
Wednesday --M--> Free Poetry Reading (FPR)
Wednesday <--some--> /FPR

But JY's explanation says:
Wednesday --M--> FPR

Most can include all, so it does not exclude the possibility of having free poetry readings on all Wednesdays.
What does "almost" mean on LSAT?

BinghamtonDave

The definition falls within the LSAT's concept of most. Essentially, this argument is valid argument form number 5 in the lessons. If you are reading this, the valid argument forms are absolutely worth a look/review of at least once per week. Knowing them can make difficult questions both more intuitive and less confusing. For an example of the ease reviewing the core curriculum can afford us in answering questions please see: 68-2-23

I would steer away from viewing "most" as containing a specific portion that includes a "some are not" section in must be true questions unless the LSAT has explicitly stated: "most, but not all." (for an example of this phenomena, please see 11-2-12, here we are explicitly told the limits of the "most" statement.) What I mean by this is that from my experience, if we have a MBT question and a most statement in the stimulus, the trap answer choice is usually something that excludes the possibility of the most in the stimulus meaning all. In this case, that recycled trap answer choice is (E)

Most, a majority, almost all, more than half are all ways that our language can refer to the concept of more than 50%.

I hope this approach helps
David

BinghamtonDave

In addition to the above comments, 29-4-21 demonstrates a really interesting way the LSAT described most. It's worth a look.

akistotle

Thank you so much. I'll review those lessons!