PT8.S1.Q10 > Analytics

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Conclusion If the public library shared by the adjacent towns of Redville and Glenwood were relocated from the library’s current, overcrowded building in central Redville to a larger, available building in central Glenwood, the library would then be within walking distance of a larger number of library users. ████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ ██████ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ██████

Argument Structure

The stimulus opens with a conditional claim that is the argument's conclusion: if the library were moved from central Redville to central Glenwood, it would be within walking distance of a larger number of library users. The stimulus then offers the premises for that conclusion: first, more people live in central Glenwood than central Redville, and second, people usually walk to the library only if it is close to their homes.

Notable Assumptions

The premises state that more people live in central Glenwood than in central Redville, while the conclusion assumes that more library users live in central Glenwood than in central Redville, and will thus be within walking distance if the library is moved to Glenwood. This doesn't have to be true. For whatever reason, even though central Redville has a smaller overall population, it might have many more library users than central Glenwood does.

You might think, based on the second premise, that having a library within walking distance will turn some of Glenwood's inhabitants into library users. But even if that were true, it wouldn't be clear that Glenwood would therefore have more library users than Redville currently does.

10.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████

Question Type

Strengthen

Remember the assumption we identified in our analysis of the stimulus: central Glenwood having a larger population than central Redville means that it has, or will have, more library users. One way to strengthen the argument would be to confirm this assumption about the number of library users in Glenwood versus Redville.

The public library ███ ███████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████ █████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████

Incorrect. Just knowing where the library used to be located doesn't tell us anything about whether relocating the library now would put it within walking distance of more library users than at present.

The area covered ██ ███████ ████████ ██ █████████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ █████████

Correct. This isn’t what we pre-phrased, but it also strengthens the argument. Knowing that central Glenwood has “many more people” than central Redville wouldn’t be as significant if the area called “central Glenwood” was ten times as large as “central Redville.” But knowing that the two places cover the same area, meaning that central Glenwood has many more people within the same area as central Redville, strengthens the idea that however many people are within walking distance of the library right now in Redville, there will be more people within walking distance of the library if it is moved to Glenwood. We still don’t know if Glenwood necessarily has more library users, but (B) nevertheless provides some support for the argument by ruling out a potential weakener (that central Glenwood's area is much larger than central Redville).

47%

The building that ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ █████████

Incorrect. The fact that there is an alternative building available in Redville is irrelevant to the question of whether moving the library to Glenwood would put it within walking distance of more library users.

Many of the ██████ ███ ███ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ ██ █████████

Incorrect. Knowing that "many" (and we don't know what proportion of library users this is — remember that for LSAT purposes, we can think of "many" as meaning "some") library users don't live in either Glenwood or Redville doesn't tell us whether moving the library from Redville to Glenwood would put the library within walking distance of more library users.

The distance that ██████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ███████ █████████

Incorrect. This is a really tempting answer choice, because it tells us that the number of people within walking distance of the library right now is zero. This might seem to strengthen the idea that moving the library will put it within walking distance of more library users: even if Glenwood doesn’t have more library users overall than Redville, having even one library user within “walking distance” of the new location would be an increase over zero.

The trouble is that (E) tells us only about the Redville location, and nothing about the Glenwood location. It’s possible the Glenwood location would also be too far away for anyone to be within "walking distance" of it. So although having even only one library user in Glenwood within walking distance of the library would be an increase over the current situation, this answer choice doesn't say anything to tell us that one library user is guaranteed. That’s why (B), although it’s not the best strengthener imaginable, is a better choice than (E): because (B) tells us about both Glenwood and Redville, which helps strengthen this argument's comparative conclusion. Because (E) only tells us about one location, it doesn’t help us with the comparison.

49%

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PrepTest 8 - Section 1 - Question 10

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