LSAT 114 – Section 1 – Question 15

LSAT 114 - Section 1 - Question 15

October 2002

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT114 S1 Q15
+LR
Most strongly supported +MSS
A
11%
162
B
13%
156
C
48%
165
D
4%
161
E
24%
157
151
163
174
 +Hardest 144.005 +SubsectionEasier

Mystery stories often feature a brilliant detective and the detective’s dull companion. Clues are presented in the story, and the companion wrongly infers an inaccurate solution to the mystery using the same clues that the detective uses to deduce the correct solution. Thus, the author’s strategy of including the dull companion gives readers a chance to solve the mystery while also diverting them from the correct solution.

Summary
Many mystery stories include a genius detective, a “dull” companion, and some clues. The detective uses the clues to solve the mystery, while the companion misinterprets the clues and comes to the wrong solution. In this type of mystery story, the use of the companion character allows readers to solve the mystery, but also diverts them from the true solution.

Strongly Supported Conclusions
The stimulus lets us conclude that:
Some clues in mystery stories can suggest both accurate and inaccurate solutions to the mystery.
Some mystery stories give the reader enough clues to solve the mystery.
Some mystery authors make decisions about what kinds of characters to include as a strategy to allow the reader to participate in solving the mystery.

A
Most mystery stories feature a brilliant detective who solves the mystery presented in the story.
This is not supported. The stimulus says that mystery stories “often” feature such a detective, but that’s not enough to be certain that “most” mystery stories use this technique.
B
Mystery readers often solve the mystery in a story simply by spotting the mistakes in the reasoning of the detective’s dull companion in that story.
This is not supported. The facts above don’t explain how readers go about solving the mystery in a story. All we know is that it’s sometimes possible for them to do so, which does not support concluding that they use this particular strategy.
C
Some mystery stories give readers enough clues to infer the correct solution to the mystery.
This is strongly supported. The stimulus says that some mystery stories give readers a chance to solve the mystery by including a dull companion. So, the stories must contain enough clues for the reader to infer the solution, or else they wouldn’t actually have a chance.
D
The actions of the brilliant detective in a mystery story rarely divert readers from the actions of the detective’s dull companion.
This is not supported. We don’t know from the stimulus how much attention readers typically give to either the detective or the companion in mystery stories, so we can’t say if one does or doesn’t divert from the other.
E
The detective’s dull companion in a mystery story generally uncovers the misleading clues that divert readers from the mystery’s correct solution.
This is not supported. The stimulus doesn’t indicate where the clues in mystery novels usually come from, or who uncovers them. We don’t know if it’s the companion, the detective, or someone else.

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LSAT PrepTest 114 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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