LSAT 144 – Section 2 – Question 15

LSAT 144 - Section 2 - Question 15

October 2015

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT144 S2 Q15
+LR
Most strongly supported +MSS
Fill in the blank +Fill
A
73%
165
B
18%
161
C
1%
153
D
0%
149
E
7%
158
138
151
164
 +Medium 148.975 +SubsectionMedium

Journalism’s purpose is to inform people about matters relevant to the choices they must make. Yet, clearly, people often buy newspapers or watch television news programs precisely because they contain sensationalistic gossip about people whom they will never meet and whose business is of little relevance to their lives. Obviously, then, the sensationalistic gossip contained in newspapers and television news programs _______.

Summary
The purpose of journalism is to inform people about things that are relevant to their choices. Newspapers and TV news programs often have sensationalistic gossip, which isn’t relevant to people.

Strongly Supported Conclusions
The blank should be filled with a statement about the sensationalistic gossip in newspapers and TV news programs. Since we know that this gossip isn’t relevant to people, and we know that the purpose of journalism is to provide relevant information, we can conclude that sensationalistic gossip doesn’t serve journalism’s purpose.

A
is at least sometimes included for nonjournalistic reasons
Strongly supported. The gossip is about people who aren’t relevant to news readers/watchers. So, it doesn’t serve journalism’s purpose. This is evidence that the gossip is included in newspapers and TV news programs for some other reason besides serving journalism’s purpose.
B
prevents those news media from achieving their purpose
Unsupported. Most other news stories might serve journalism’s purpose. There’s no evidence that the inclusion of some gossip stories is a significant part of news programs or otherwise represents a significant part of what news media does.
C
is more relevant to people’s lives now than it used to be
Unsupported. The stimulus never compares the present to the past. We have no basis to reach a conclusion about whether gossip is more relevant now compared to the past.
D
should not be thought of as a way of keeping an audience entertained
Unsupported. The gossip might be included to keep the audience entertained. There’s nothing in the stimulus suggesting the gossip doesn’t entertain audiences.
E
is of no value to people who are interested in journalism
Unsupported. We don’t know what people who are interested in journalism find valuable. Maybe gossip stories are valuable to read in journalism classes to give students a better understanding of the media industry and the competitive pressures that lead to gossip stories.

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LSAT PrepTest 144 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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