PT55.S1.Q21 - advertiser: most tv shows depend on

civnetncivnetn Free Trial Member
edited August 2016 in Logical Reasoning 148 karma
https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-55-section-1-question-21/
I narrowed this question down to A and B but ultimately chose A.

A isn't necessarily wrong, but since this is a "most closely conforms" question, B was determined to more closely conform to the advertisers reasoning. I understand how this could be the case, but it does raise a question about relative terms like "many."

I'm hoping someone can provide some clarity.

The stimulus says that, "advertisers will not pay to have their commercials aired during a TV show unless many people watching the show buy the advertised products."

Correct Answer (B) states, "If a TV show would be canceled unless many people took certain actions..."

When many is used in the stimulus it is used to refer to a subset of people. Namely, those who watch a specific show.
When many is used in (B), it is used in a general sense.

I crossed (B) off because I thought these two instances of "many" were very different.

Say 200 people watch a certain show. Let's say many people, in this instance, is 150 people. In the general sense, this might not be considered many people, since many is a relative term. I mean, if we're just talking generally, who knows what many is.

Comments

  • blah170blahblah170blah Alum Inactive ⭐
    3545 karma
    (A) is actually incorrect because the conditional given in the answer choice misinterprets the conditional given in the stimulus as saying: if every person failed to buy a product that is advertised, a show would be canceled.

    Conceptually, (A) also misses the relationship between 1 viewer and lots of viewers in saving a TV show. (A) only focuses on what 1 viewer should do and the effect 1 viewer's actions have on preserving a TV show. The stimulus, however, says that anyone/everyone should take an action because of what lots of people might not do (aka buy the products advertised).

    The word "generally" in the stimulus is what makes (B) correct.
  • civnetncivnetn Free Trial Member
    148 karma
    @blah170blah I'm not sure I entirely understand. I didn't peg that line in the stimulus that uses the word "generally" as a principle affecting sentence. It's just saying what would happen if people generally didn't buy the advertising. The principle seems to be in the last sentence of the paragraph, and it uses the word "any."

    And I'm not sure I agree that (A) is only focusing on what 1 person would do. It's a general principle meant to apply to everyone, not just a single person. It's just describing what "one" (used in the general sense) should do given circumstances.

    Not trying to be difficult here. It just really doesn't make sense to me. I thought the only real difference between the answer choices was the use of "many" in (B). No?
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