LSAT 136 – Section 4 – Question 06

LSAT 136 - Section 4 - Question 06

June 2012

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT136 S4 Q06
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Quantifier +Quant
Sampling +Smpl
A
5%
158
B
10%
159
C
83%
165
D
1%
156
E
0%
150
130
143
156
 +Medium 146.121 +SubsectionMedium

Patricia: During Japan’s Tokugawa period, martial arts experts known as ninjas were trained for the purposes of espionage and assassination. Yet at that time there was actually very little ninja activity in Japan, and most Japanese did not fear ninjas.

Tamara: That is not true. Many wealthy Japanese during the Tokugawa period had their houses constructed with intentionally squeaky floors so that they would receive warning if a ninja were in the house.

Summarize Argument
Tamara concludes that it is not true that most Japanese people did not fear ninjas during Japan’s Tokugawa period. She bases this on the fact that, during the Tokugawa period, many wealthy Japanese people installed intentionally squeaky floors in their homes so that they would know if a ninja snuck in.

Notable Assumptions
Tamara assumes that wealthy Japanese people during the Tokugawa period are a representative sample of most Japanese people at that time. She assumes that, just because many wealthy people seem to have feared ninjas, that means that most other Japanese people also feared ninjas.

A
Many poor Japanese during the Tokugawa period also had houses constructed with intentionally squeaky floors.
This strengthens Tamara’s argument slightly by showing that more than just wealthy Japanese people appear to have feared ninjas. We instead need an answer choice that weakens her conclusion that most Japanese people feared ninjas in the Tokugawa period.
B
As part of their secret training, ninjas learned to walk on squeaky floors without making a sound.
Even if their squeaky floors weren’t an effective defense against ninjas, wealthy Japanese people still seem to have feared them. The questions remains whether these wealthy Japanese accurately represented all Japanese people during the Tokugawa period.
C
The wealthy made up a small portion of Japan’s population during the Tokugawa period.
This weakens the argument by showing that Tamara's assumption that wealthy Japanese accurately represent all Japanese people is false. (C) points out that Tamara can't draw a conclusion about all Japanese people in the Tokugawa period based only on evidence about wealthy people.
D
The fighting prowess of ninjas was exaggerated to mythic proportions in the years following the Tokugawa period.
Whether or not ninjas were truly great fighters doesn’t change the fact that many wealthy Japanese people seem to have been afraid of them during the Tokugawa period. (D) doesn’t weaken Tamara’s conclusion or point out that her assumption is false.
E
There were very few ninjas at any time other than during the Tokugawa period.
Tamara’s conclusion is only about Japanese people during the Tokugawa period, so the presence or absence of ninjas at any other time period is not relevant.

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LSAT PrepTest 136 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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