LSAT 102 – Section 3 – Question 23

LSAT 102 - Section 3 - Question 23

June 1998

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT102 S3 Q23
+LR
+Exp
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Link Assumption +LinkA
A
7%
161
B
1%
154
C
3%
159
D
9%
160
E
79%
166
141
151
161
 +Medium 147.613 +SubsectionMedium

A museum director, in order to finance expensive new acquisitions, discreetly sold some paintings by major artists. All of them were paintings that the director privately considered inferior. Critics roundly condemned the sale, charging that the museum had lost first-rate pieces, thereby violating its duty as a trustee of art for future generations. A few months after being sold by the museum, those paintings were resold, in an otherwise stagnant art market, at two to three times the price paid to the museum. Clearly, these prices settle the issue, since they demonstrate the correctness of the critics’ evaluation.

Summarize Argument
The argument concludes that the high resale prices of several artworks sold off by a museum settle the issue of whether the artworks were of high or low quality. According to the argument, the prices prove that critics were correct that the artworks were first-rate pieces.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The argument uses the increased resale prices of the artworks as definitive evidence that the artworks were truly of high quality. However, this doesn’t account for the relevant circumstances of the resale compared to when the works were first sold. The first sale was “discreet,” while the resale followed the critics’ public outcry about how great the pieces were. This could easily have affected the prices.

A
It concludes that a certain opinion is correct on the grounds that it is held by more people than hold the opposing view.
The argument doesn’t use the number of people who think the artworks are high-quality as evidence.
B
It rejects the judgment of the experts in an area in which there is no better guide to the truth than expert judgment.
The argument doesn’t reject the judgment of experts. It’s merely siding with one group of experts, the critics, over another expert, the museum director.
C
It rejects a proven means of accomplishing an objective without offering any alternative means of accomplishing that objective.
The argument isn’t concerned with how to accomplish any objective.
D
It bases a firm conclusion about a state of affairs in the present on somewhat speculative claims about a future state of affairs.
The argument doesn’t make any claims about any future state of affairs.
E
It bases its conclusion on facts that could, in the given situation, have resulted from causes other than those presupposed by the argument.
The argument’s conclusion is based on the fact that the artworks resold for high prices. The supposed cause is that the artworks were of high quality. However, the high prices could also have resulted from the publicity of the critics’ public outcry about the artworks.

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LSAT PrepTest 102 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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