LSAT 129 – Section 2 – Question 25

LSAT 129 - Section 2 - Question 25

June 2009

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT129 S2 Q25
+LR
Must be true +MBT
Conditional Reasoning +CondR
Rule-Application +RuleApp
A
16%
164
B
6%
159
C
63%
166
D
6%
159
E
9%
162
147
159
171
 +Harder 144.702 +SubsectionEasier

The law of the city of Weston regarding contributions to mayoral campaigns is as follows: all contributions to these campaigns in excess of $100 made by nonresidents of Weston who are not former residents of Weston must be registered with the city council. Brimley’s mayoral campaign clearly complied with this law since it accepted contributions only from residents and former residents of Weston.

Summary
The stimulus can be diagrammed as follows:

Notable Valid Inferences
Any contribution of $100 or less doesn’t have to be registered with the city council.
Any contribution made by a resident of Weston doesn’t have to be registered with the city council.
Any contribution made by a former resident of Weston doesn’t have to be registered with the city council.

A
No nonresident of Weston contributed in excess of $100 to Brimley’s campaign.
Could be false. Maybe a former resident of Weston contributed in excess of $100 to Brimley’s campaign.
B
Some contributions to Brimley’s campaign in excess of $100 were registered with the city council.
Could be true. The stimulus tells us that contributions over $100 don’t have to be registered with the city council as long they were made by a current or former Weston resident, but it doesn’t tell us that such donations can’t be registered by choice.
C
No contributions to Brimley’s campaign needed to be registered with the city council.
No contributions to Brimley’s campaign were made by someone who has never lived in Weston, so none of the contributions fall into the category of donations that need to be registered with the city council.
D
All contributions to Brimley’s campaign that were registered with the city council were in excess of $100.
Could be true. Maybe each of the current and former residents that contributed to Brimley’s campaign donated more than $100.
E
Brimley’s campaign did not register any contributions with the city council.
Could be true. We know that Brimley’s campaign were not required to register any contributions with the city council, and they may have decided not to.

This question's pretty tough so I hope you didn't spend too much time on it.

The stimulus tells us that "the law" is as follows. It's important for (C) to note that in context, we are to presume that this is the only law that pertains to contributions to mayoral campaigns in Weston.

What's "the law"?
If (1) $100+ and (2) currently nonresident and (3) never was a resident then must be registered.

For Brimley's campaign, we know that (4) he complied with this law and (5) accepted contributions from residents and former residents and no one else.

What must be true? (4) tells us that his campaign did not run afoul of the law (in other words, no contradiction). We overlook this fact because (4) is a conclusion and we're well trained to be skeptical of conclusions. But, this is a MBT question. The question stem explicitly tells us to presume that EVERYTHING in the stimulus is true. We must accept that in fact Brimley's campaign was run legally.

(5) tells us that Brimley's campaign failed the sufficient conditions of the law. Remember logic games lessons? Sufficient failed, rule irrelevant. In context, that means Brimley's campaign did not have to register any of its contributions. That's exactly what (C) says.

(A) is the attractive, trap answer choice. We're thinking, well, (A) must be true right?

If nonresidents contributed in excess of $100, then it would have to be registered.

First, that's false. This is true: if nonresidents who were never residents contributed in excess of $100, then it would have to be registered. See the difference?

Second, even if that's not false, we don't actually know if Brimely's campaign registered any contributions. We know that (C) they did not NEED to register. But maybe they registered for fun anyway.

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LSAT PrepTest 129 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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