LSAT 145 – Section 4 – Question 06

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Question
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Type Tags Answer
Choices
Curve Question
Difficulty
Psg/Game/S
Difficulty
Explanation
PT145 S4 Q06
+LR
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Link Assumption +LinkA
A
2%
155
B
5%
159
C
91%
165
D
1%
155
E
0%
147
130
140
150
+Easier 148.528 +SubsectionMedium


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Letter to the editor: Your newspaper’s advertisement claims that you provide coverage of the high school’s most popular sports. Clearly this is false advertising. Of the school’s students, 15 percent compete on the track team, while only 5 percent of the students play basketball. Hence, track is far more popular than basketball, yet track gets no coverage and basketball gets full-page coverage.

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author concludes that the newspaper does not provide coverage of the high school’s most popular sports. This is based on the fact that track gets no coverage, while basketball gets full-page coverage. In addition, 15% of the school’s students compete on the track team, while only 5% compete on the basketball team. The author takes this to imply that track is far more popular than basketball.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The author interpret’s the newspaper’s claim of providing coverage of the most “popular” sports as a reference to the most-participated in sports. But “popular,” as the newspaper used it, means of high interest to the public or to the school’s students, or to the newspaper’s readers.

A
infers a cause from a mere correlation
The author does not conclude or assume a causal relationship. The argument concerns whether the school covers the most “popular” sports, not about cause and effect.
B
bases its conclusion on a sample that is too small
The argument doesn’t generalize from a sample. The citation to track and basketball statistics are intended to show that basketball is more popular than track. Also, we have no indication that the number of track participants or basketball participants are too small.
C
misinterprets a key word in the newspaper’s advertisement
The author misinterprets the word “popular.” The author thinks it refers to the most-participated in sports, but it actually refers to popularity as in the level of interest.
D
employs as a premise the contention it purports to show
(D) describes circular reasoning. The conclusion — that the newspapers does not cover the most popular sports — does not restate a premise.
E
criticizes the source of a claim rather than the claim itself
The author doesn’t criticize the newspaper as part of proving that the newspaper’s claim is false.

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