PT27.S4.Q18 - book publishers have traditionally published

CocoZhang

I was going through the core curriculum and encountered this weakening question: https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-27-section-4-question-18

I chose C, and the correct answer choice turned out to be B.

After going through the video, I understood that answer choice B is correct. But I still couldn't figure out why C is wrong. In the video, the explanation given is that "if they (book publisher) do make sizable money, they would continue doing it. The fact that they stop makes it even less reasonably that it is a money-grab... therefore C is incorrect".

But why? If C makes it less reasonable for book publisher to be money-grab, then it weakens the argument.

I wonder if anyone can help me on that...

Cant Get Right

Yeah, this one's tough. So the argument is saying that because these books of intrinsic value aren't being published as much, therefore publishers are only looking to make money. So I totally see what you're thinking. Well, if they might make money after all, then money is less likely to be the motivation.

I think it's the word "unexpectedly" that really does answer choice C in. So even for those books that did make money, the decision to publish them was made with the expectation that they would not. Obviously the decision to publish a book or not is made based on the publishers' expectations, not on the actual results which are not available to the publisher at the time the decision is being made. So the fact remains that they are publishing fewer books which they expect not to make money, answer C doesn't challenge that because of the word "unexpectedly."

CocoZhang

@"Cant Get Right"

Thanks for your explanation. That makes more sense.

I think I made the unwarranted assumption that, by gaining unexpected profit from one or two books of intrinsic merit, the book publishers would start to think that publishing books of intrinsic merit would be profitable. Now things are clear.

Cant Get Right

You got it @CocoZhang .