LSAT 127 – Section 3 – Question 21

LSAT 127 - Section 3 - Question 21

December 2003

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

Request new explanation

Target time: 1:18

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
PT127 S3 Q21
+LR
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
20%
160
B
11%
161
C
6%
159
D
60%
167
E
3%
159
151
160
170
 +Hardest 146.462 +SubsectionMedium

George: Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, hardly anyone learned ballroom dancing. Why is it that a large number of people now take ballroom dancing lessons?

Boris: It’s because, beginning in 1995, many people learned the merengue and several related ballroom dances. Because these dances are so popular, other ballroom dances are now catching on.

Summarize Argument
George asks why a large number of people are now taking ballroom dancing lessons, even though in the 1980s and 1990s, almost nobody took ballroom dancing lessons.

Boris’s answer is that in 1995, lots of people learned some ballroom dances, and this lead to other ballroom dances becoming popular.

Identify and Describe Flaw
George isn’t just asking “Why are lots of people taking ballroom dancing lessons?” He’s asking why so many people are taking ballroom dancing in light of the fact that it was unpopular in the past. In other words, George sees a discrepancy that needs to be explained.

Boris’s answer doesn’t help resolve the discrepancy. Pointing out that ballroom dancing started to become popular in 1995 doesn’t explain WHY it became more popular after a period of being unpopular.

A
show that the people who learned the merengue are the same people who are now interested in other ballroom dances
Boris didn’t need to show that the exact same people are now interested in other dances. Perhaps one person is inspired to dance because of a different person’s dancing. What Boris needed to explain was why ballroom dancing became popular, even though it was unpopular before.
B
explain why ballroom dancing was so unpopular before 1995
Boris didn’t need to explain why ballroom dancing was unpopular before 1995. He needed to explain how it became popular after 1995. There’s a difference between explaining why something used to unpopular and explaining why something became popular.
C
relate the merengue to the forms of dancing that were more prevalent before 1995
Boris didn’t need to relate the merengue to other kinds of dancing. The merengue is simply one kind of ballroom dance. What matters is why the merengue and other ballroom dances became popular in 1995.
D
account for the beginning of the revival of interest in ballroom dancing
Boris failed to explain why ballroom dancing started to become popular in 1995. George wasn’t just asking, “Why are lots of people interested in ballroom dance?” He asked what explains the unexpected new interest, given the lack of interest in the 80s and early 90s.
E
demonstrate that all types of ballroom dancing are currently popular
Boris didn’t need to show that all ballroom dancing types are popular. He just needed to explain why ballroom dancing in general became popular, despite its unpopularity in the 80s and early 90s.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 127 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply