PT74.S1.Q24 - any driver involved in an accident

rockytoralrockytoral Alum Member
edited February 2016 in General 149 karma
Someone please help...
https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-74-section-1-question-24/

Comments

  • runiggyrunruniggyrun Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    edited February 2016 2481 karma
    Let's hope I got the right question - the one with reporting an accident, right?
    The stimulus boils down to "if an accident causes personal injury OR property damage >$500, the driver needs to report it, unless incapable to do so". Ted doesn't need to report the accident. What can be inferred?

    For Ted to not need to report the damage, he needs to satisfy one of the two conditions:
    He is incapable to do so (in which case it doesn't matter what mayhem the accident caused)
    OR
    The accident didn't cause ANY personal injury AND it didn't cause property damage >$500.

    a. is incorrect. If Ted is incapable to report the accident (maybe he died) then it doesn't need to be reported. We can't infer anything about the damages or injuries
    b. is correct. If his car was damaged, and it was >$500, then he needs to report the accident UNLESS he is incapable to do so. The stimulus tells us that he doesn't need to, so it must be that he is incapable to do so.
    c. doesn't have to be true. There are ways (above) to lead to Ted not needing to report the accident that don't involve anybody else
    d. That's a tempting conclusion, because that's what you'd think about when you think about reasons he is incapable to report the accident, but the premises don't support this. If he's incapable (for any reason) he doesn't need to report it. He doesn't have to be injured. Maybe he only speaks Aramaic and nobody at the police station can take down the report.
    e. Very nice trap answer. But the OR doesn't cut it. It needs to be "nobody was injured AND the damage didn't exceed $500. This goes back to the lesson about negating complex conditional
    A or B-->C Not C--->not A and not B. Injury or big damage-->report. No report-->no injury and no big damage
    I hope this helps

    Edited to add: the premises are an example of an embedded conditional, and JY does a fantastic job explaining how to go from the embedded conditional to a simple conditional.
    https://7sage.com/lesson/mastery-embedded-conditional/
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