LSAT 118 – Section 1 – Question 16

LSAT 118 - Section 1 - Question 16

December 2004

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT118 S1 Q16
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Value Judgment +ValJudg
A
4%
157
B
3%
157
C
76%
166
D
15%
161
E
2%
156
141
151
162
 +Medium 148.411 +SubsectionMedium

Literary critic: Often the heirs of a successful writer decide to publish the manuscripts and the letters the dead writer left behind, regardless of the merit of the work. However, many writers have manuscripts that they judge to be unworthy of publication and with which they would not like to be publicly associated even after they die. Hence a successful writer who decides not to publish a recently completed manuscript should destroy it immediately.

Summarize Argument
Successful writers should immediately destroy any recently completed manuscripts they decide not to publish. When these writers pass away, their heirs often publish works that the writers chose not to release during their lifetime. Many writers would prefer that unpublished manuscripts remain unpublished posthumously.

Notable Assumptions
The critic assumes that writers are confident in their preliminary evaluations of recently completed manuscripts—confident enough to destroy them immediately if they decide not to publish.

A
Some writers whose work becomes both popular and respected after they die received no literary recognition during their lifetimes.
This does not affect the argument. The literary critic argues that writers often have manuscripts they do not want published at all; the potential for posthumous success does not alter this stance.
B
Writers who achieve a certain degree of fame can expect that some of their personal correspondence will become publicly available after they die.
This does not affect the argument. The scope of the literary critic’s conclusion is limited to manuscripts and does not include personal correspondence.
C
Most successful writers’ judgments of their recently completed work is unnecessarily harsh and is often later revised.
This weakens the argument. It exploits the critic’s assumption that writers’ immediate evaluations of their manuscripts are reliable and that they won’t soon change their minds about the quality of their work, leading to regret over having destroyed them immediately.
D
Many posthumously published books would have been published by the author had the author lived.
This does not affect the argument. The critic does not claim that all manuscripts left behind by a deceased writer were deemed unworthy. Rather, the critic argues that writers should destroy unworthy manuscripts to prevent the publication of works they do not want released.
E
Some heirs of successful writers do not consider themselves qualified to judge the merits of a literary work.
This does not affect the argument. The critic claims that a successful writer’s heirs will often publish the writer’s works regardless of their merit. The heirs’ ability (or inability) to judge the quality of these works does not seem to influence their tendency to publish them.

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LSAT PrepTest 118 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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