LSAT 113 – Section 3 – Question 20

LSAT 113 - Section 3 - Question 20

June 2002

You need a full course to see this video. Enroll now and get started in less than a minute.

Target time: 1:34

This is question data from the 7Sage LSAT Scorer. You can score your LSATs, track your results, and analyze your performance with pretty charts and vital statistics - all with a Free Account ← sign up in less than 10 seconds

Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT113 S3 Q20
+LR
+Exp
Most strongly supported +MSS
Value Judgment +ValJudg
A
1%
154
B
72%
168
C
15%
161
D
3%
158
E
10%
160
150
158
166
 +Harder 146.265 +SubsectionMedium

One of the most vexing problems in historiography is dating an event when the usual sources offer conflicting chronologies of the event. Historians should attempt to minimize the number of competing sources, perhaps by eliminating the less credible ones. Once this is achieved and several sources are left, as often happens, historians may try, though on occasion unsuccessfully, to determine independently of the usual sources which date is more likely to be right.

Summary
One of the most challenging problems in historiography is dating an event when sources offer conflicting information. Historians should minimize the number of these sources by eliminating less credible ones. Once this happens, historians should try to determine independently which of the sources is most likely to be right, although they are sometimes unsuccessful.

Strongly Supported Conclusions
There are some events that historians have not reliably dated.

A
We have no plausible chronology of most of the events for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date.
This is too broad to support. There is not enough support to contend that we have no plausible chronology of “most” disputed events. The stimulus says that historians were unable to successfully date *some* events.
B
Some of the events for which there are conflicting chronologies and for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date cannot be dated reliably by historians.
The stimulus says that historians “on occasion unsuccessfully” try to determine the date for an event after minimizing competing sources. This implies that there are at least some events that cannot be dated reliably.
C
Attaching a reliable date to any event requires determining which of several conflicting chronologies is most likely to be true.
This is too broad to support. The stimulus only concerns dates where the usual sources offer conflicting information, not “any event.”
D
Determining independently of the usual sources which of several conflicting chronologies is more likely to be right is an ineffective way of dating events.
This is antisupported. The stimulus suggests this method to date events.
E
The soundest approach to dating an event for which the usual sources give conflicting chronologies is to undermine the credibility of as many of these sources as possible.
This is too strong to support. The stimulus says that this is *an* approach, not that this is the *soundest* or best approach. Be wary of these strong words in answer choices! They can sometimes be supported, but make sure to double-check the stimulus for the support.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 113 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply