LSAT 130 – Section 4 – Question 18

LSAT 130 - Section 4 - Question 18

September 2009

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT130 S4 Q18
+LR
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
A
0%
150
B
0%
154
C
17%
158
D
10%
161
E
72%
166
143
153
164
 +Harder 146.168 +SubsectionMedium

Despite the efforts of a small minority of graduate students at one university to unionize, the majority of graduate students there remain unaware of the attempt. Most of those who are aware believe that a union would not represent their interests or that, if it did, it would not effectively pursue them. Thus, the graduate students at the university should not unionize, since the majority of them obviously disapprove of the attempt.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the students shouldn’t unionize. He supports this with the following premises:

(1) A small group tried to unionize, but the majority of the students are unaware of this attempt.

(2) Of those who are aware, most believe that a union would not represent or pursue their interests well.

(3) So, the majority of the students disapprove of the union effort.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The author concludes that most students disapprove of the union effort but his premises state that most students are unaware of it. So, he confuses a lack of awareness with active disapproval. Most students who are aware of the effort do seem to disapprove of it, but these students are not the majority.

In other words, it’s possible that only 10% are aware of the effort and disapprove, while 90% (the majority) are simply unaware and may or may not approve.

A
tries to establish a conclusion simply on the premise that the conclusion agrees with a long-standing practice
The author’s conclusion is based on the mistaken assumption that the majority of the students disapprove of the union effort. It’s not based on the premise that unionization agrees with a long-standing practice.
B
fails to exclude alternative explanations for why some graduate students disapprove of unionizing
The author is just arguing that because students disapprove of unionizing, they shouldn’t unionize. He doesn’t need to address all possible explanations for why the students might disapprove of unionizing.
C
presumes that simply because a majority of a population is unaware of something, it must not be a good idea
Instead, the author assumes that simply because a majority of the students are unaware of the unionizing attempt, those students must also disapprove of the attempt.
D
ignores the possibility that although a union might not effectively pursue graduate student interests, there are other reasons for unionizing
The author concludes that the students shouldn’t unionize because most students disapprove of unionizing. It doesn’t matter whether there are other reasons for unionizing.
E
blurs the distinction between active disapproval and mere lack of approval
The author assumes that the majority of students actively disapprove of the union effort simply because the majority of students are unaware of it. But just because these students merely lack approval for the effort doesn’t mean that they disapprove.

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LSAT PrepTest 130 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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