LSAT 135 – Section 2 – Question 06

LSAT 135 - Section 2 - Question 06

December 2011

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

Request new explanation

Target time: 1:31

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
PT135 S2 Q06
+LR
+Exp
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Net Effect +NetEff
Link Assumption +LinkA
A
1%
152
B
18%
158
C
73%
164
D
4%
158
E
4%
155
141
152
162
 +Medium 146.729 +SubsectionMedium

Mayor: Local antitobacco activists are calling for expanded antismoking education programs paid for by revenue from heavily increased taxes on cigarettes sold in the city. Although the effectiveness of such education programs is debatable, there is strong evidence that the taxes themselves would produce the sought-after reduction in smoking. Surveys show that cigarette sales drop substantially in cities that impose stiff tax increases on cigarettes.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that heavily increasing taxes on cigarettes sold in the city would reduce smoking in the city. He bases this on surveys which show that cigarette sales drop substantially in cities that increase taxes on cigarettes.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the survey captures a clear cause-and-effect relationship between higher taxes and lower smoking rates. He assumes that, because taxes are shown to decrease cigarette sales, a drop in cigarette sales would then cause a decrease in smoking. He ignores the possibility that people might seek cigarettes through other means.
He also assumes that what works in the cities with similar tax increases that are represented by the survey will also work in this particular city, without considering any local factors that might differ.

A
A city-imposed tax on cigarettes will substantially reduce the amount of smoking in the city if the tax is burdensome to the average cigarette consumer.
This does not undermine the reasoning in the argument. Instead, it presents a condition which, if met, would indeed reduce the amount of smoking in the city.
B
Consumers are more likely to continue buying a product if its price increases due to higher taxes than if its price increases for some other reason.
While (B) suggests there might be more effective ways to reduce cigarette purchases, it doesn't change the fact that higher taxes would have some effect. It also doesn't point out the author’s assumption that a reduction in purchases would lead to less smoking.
C
Usually, cigarette sales will increase substantially in the areas surrounding a city after that city imposes stiff taxes on cigarettes.
(C) weakens the author's argument by showing that people might find other ways to get cigarettes after the city’s tax increase. It thus demonstrates that a drop in cigarette purchases will not necessarily lead to less smoking, as the author assumed it would.
D
People who are well informed about the effects of long-term tobacco use are significantly less likely to smoke than are people who are not informed.
This implies that the city’s antismoking education programs could effectively reduce smoking. But it doesn’t undermine the author’s conclusion, which is that increased taxes on cigarettes would effectively reduce smoking.
E
Antismoking education programs that are funded by taxes on cigarettes will tend to lose their funding if they are successful.
Like (D), this speaks to the effectiveness of antismoking education programs; if they successfully reduce smoking, then they’ll lose their funding due to fewer cigarette purchases. However, it doesn't weaken the author's conclusion that higher cigarette taxes will reduce smoking.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 135 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply