Answer choices with the word "SOME" for weakening questions

Comments

• 1 Like

  Cant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor

  May 2016 27900 karma

  Some is definitely a word you’ve got to watch out for. It can have big implications and you need to understand what those are. There is a whole section devoted to it, but it’s well after the weakening lessons. So don’t worry, you just haven’t gotten to it yet! I don’t think there would be any enormous disadvantage to skipping ahead if it’s something you’re interested in and you want to take a look at it. Scroll down in the curriculum, the section is “Some and Most relationships."
• 1 Like

  danielznelson Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  May 2016 4181 karma

  Yeah, some can be a tricky indicator word, especially for weakening questions. In many cases, ACs using the word "some" does NOT weaken an argument, even if that group of "some" contradicts that which is argued in the stimulus.
  
  For example, if an argument claims that most skiers in town go skiing only on Wednesdays, an answer choice claiming some skiers in town go only on Tuesdays wouldn't destroy the original argument. In fact, the individual making the claim that most go skiing only on Wednesdays could very well concede that some go only on Tuesdays! Most obviously doesn't comprise all, so "some" can exist outside of the category where most others fall.
  
  As @"Cant Get Right" mentioned, the curriculum on some and most relationships will help you more than anything; what I noted is probably better to back to after you've gone over the curriculum on some and most relationships.
  
• 2 Likes

  runiggyrun Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  May 2016 2481 karma

  I don't think "SOME" is a very reliable indicator of whether an answer weakens an argument or not. It's not so much about the presence of SOME, but about the rest of the answer and how it relates to the argument.
  I'll try to give you an example (bear in mind that these quick examples are in no way as tight as a true LSAT question/answers would be, as I'm not an LSAT writer).
  In a study, people with rheumatoid arthritis were found to be twice as likely than people without it to be infected with bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. Staph. aureus infections must contribute to the development of rheumatoid arthritis.
  Which of the following weakens the argument?
  a. Some inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis weaken resistance to bacterial infection (yes - shows that the cause-effect relationship could be reversed. Maybe rheumatoid arthritis contributes to Staph infections instead).
  b. Some of the people without rheumatoid arthritis were also infected with Staph (no; stimulus already allows for this; maybe staph can still contribute under the right circumstances)
  c. some other bacteria, like Klebsiella, are also present whenever there is a Staph infection (yes; maybe it's the other bacteria that contributes)
  d. some of the rheumatoid arthritis patients were also infected with other bacteria (no; how many - some can mean just one? more than the healthy people? the same bacteria? each of them with a different bacteria? same patients or random ones?)
  
  Don't focus on the "some", focus on the rest of the sentence an and whether the answer does what a weaken is supposed to do (for instance it exposes and invalidates an assumption or offers an alternate explanation for an alleged cause/effect relationship).
  
  The only time SOME does indicate that one of the above is occurring is in cases where the assumption is that " all A's do X" and the correct AC will state that "some A's don't do X".
  So, it's not the presence of "SOME", it's the negation of the implicit assumption that makes the statement a weakening one.
  Example: Mike is Canadian. He must like poutine.
  Assumption: all Canadians like poutine.
  Weakening statement: some Canadians hate poutine.
  
• diefor170 Member

  May 2016 129 karma

  Wow
  Thank you so much for the helpful comments!
  
  I will listen to the section which devoted to "some" first and come back to all your explainations again.
  
  Thank you so so so much for taking your time to help me!
  
  I cannot explain how grateful I am!