LSAT 146 – Section 3 – Question 05

LSAT 146 - Section 3 - Question 05

June 2016

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT146 S3 Q05
+LR
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Math +Math
A
0%
149
B
1%
155
C
0%
151
D
4%
154
E
95%
164
132
140
148
 +Easier 146.758 +SubsectionMedium

Resident: Data indicates that 30 percent of the houses in our town have inadequate site drainage and 30 percent have structural defects that could make them unsafe. Hence, at least 60 percent of our town’s houses have some kind of problem that threatens their integrity.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that at least 60% of our town’s houses have some kind of problem that threatens their integrity. This is based on the fact that 30% of houses in our town have inadequate site drainage and 30% have structural defects that could make them unsafe.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The author overlooks the possibility that some of our town’s houses have both inadequate site drainage and structural defects. If this possibility were true, than the overall percentage of houses with a problem that threatens their integrity could be less than 60%. The author wouldn’t be able to simply add 30% to 30% if some of the first 30% (with inadequate site drainage) are also part of the other 30% (with structural defects).

A
the town has a relatively small number of houses
The argument concerns the % of houses with something that threatens their integrity. This isn’t affected by the number of houses in the town.
B
inadequate site drainage can make a house unsafe
This possibility, if true, doesn’t weaken the argument. If inadequate site drainage can make a house unsafe, it’s still a feature that threatens the integrity of the house.
C
structural defects are often easier to fix than inadequate site drainage
The argument concerns what % of houses have problems that threaten the houses’ integrity. Whether certain defects are easier to fix than others doesn’t affect the reasoning.
D
many houses in the town have neither inadequate site drainage nor structural defects that could make them unsafe
The author doesn’t fail to recognize this. The conclusion is that at least 60% of the town’s houses have problems that threaten integrity; that leaves up to 40% that the author believes don’t have those problems.
E
some of the houses that have structural defects that could make them unsafe also have inadequate site drainage
This possibility, if true, means we can’t simply add the 30% with inadequate site drainage to the 30% with structural defects. Since one house can have both features, the total proportion with at least one of those features would add up to less than 60%.

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LSAT PrepTest 146 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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