Logical reasoning PrepTest 107 · Section 1 · Question 2

Question prompt

Politician: The funding for Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: A

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument/Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed/Flawed

Question Type

Methods of Reasoning Questions

Stimulus Summary

P: Smoking causes expensive health problems, so the health-awareness campaign should be funded with a cigarette tax.
S: Fatty foods also cause expensive health problems, but it wouldn’t be fair to fund the campaign with a fatty food tax.

Answer Anticipation

It’s important to know the common methods of reasoning that are employed on the LSAT - especially in Methods of Reasoning questions!
Here, the Smoker pivots to an analogous situation to the Politician - the Smoker discusses fatty foods, whereas the Politician discusses smoking. Relying on the similarities between the two, the Smoker says that it would be unreasonable to make those who buy fatty foods fund the health-awareness program with a tax, and so she implies that it would be similarly unreasonable to make smokers fund that program with a tax.
That’s a common method of reasoning - using an analogous situation to show that an opposing point’s logic, applied in a similar context, leads to an undesirable or illogical conclusion. Let’s find an answer reflecting that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    offers a counterexample that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    While counter/examples and analogous situations are distinct, they do overlap. In this case, the Smoker’s argument can be characterized as a counterexample as well as an analogy. Why? The Politician relies on a principle - people who have unhealthy habits should bear the costs of this campaign. The Smoker’s example falls under that principle, yet leads to a different conclusion, so this answer is correct.
  2. B
    presents an alternative solution Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The Smoker brings up an alternative group that it would be unreasonable to ask to fund the campaign, so putting that group forward can’t be viewed as an alternative solution.
  3. C
    argues that the method Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    This answer would apply if the Smoker noted that the tax wouldn’t raise enough money to fund the program, which isn’t what she does.
  4. D
    questions the accuracy of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    The Smoker doesn’t question whether smoking causes many serious health problems. In fact, in bringing up an alternative that causes “as many” serious health problems as smoking, she relies on the Politician’s premise being accurate.
  5. E
    illustrates how the politician's Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Presumably, the health-awareness program is meant to raise awareness of health issues. There’s no indication in the Smoker’s argument that she believes the campaign would lead to people being less aware of health issues.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 93%
  2. B 1%
  3. C 5%
  4. D 1%
  5. E 1%

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