Logical reasoning PrepTest 129 · Section 3 · Question 14

Incorrect. Since most people aren't mistaken about the fat content of bran flakes, the first rule applies. According to that rule, bran flakes should not be allowed to include "non-fat" on their label, and that's what Lester is doing, so this product complies with the regulations.

Incorrect. Neither of the rules applies to a situation where the product actually contains fat—whether people are aware of that or not—so this answer is out of scope. When a rule doesn't apply to a scenario, that scenario can't violate the rule.

Incorrect. Neither rule applies to food that normally contains fat, so this answer is out of scope.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Cannot Be True

Stimulus Summary:

(1) not Most mistakenly believe a food has fat → not Normally non-fat food labeled non-fat

(2) Most mistakenly believe a food has fat AND Label says the food normally doesn't contain fat → Food can be labeled non-fat

Answer Anticipation:
Very much like a Principle (Must Be True) question, this stimulus provides a couple conditional rules and asks you to apply them to the answer choices. Unlike that question type, however, this is a Cannot Be True question, so we're looking for an answer that violates or contradicts a rule—and that means stating that the sufficient condition is present but the necessary condition isn't.

With an overview of the question type out of the way, let's dig into this question! The conditionals aren't "clean" in that the terms are pretty long-winded, but if you take your time and work through them, you can get to what we have in our Summary.

One quick note—the AND sufficient condition in the second regulation. While rare, the LSAT will at times create a conditional that uses "if" twice. While there are fancier ways of dealing with this, in general, if you treat both terms introduced by "if" as sufficient conditions that both must be met to trigger the rule, you'll be golden.

Now, let's dig into the answers and see which one violates the rules. We should start our analysis of each answer by identifying if the first or second conditional applies—do most people mistakenly believe a food has fat or not?

Answer Explanation:
Since most people aren't mistaken about the fat content of applesauce, the first rule applies in this situation. According to that rule, applesauce shouldn't be labeled non-fat. However, Lester, in defiance of food labeling regulations, has thrown that label on his applesauce. That's a clear violation of the rule, and so this is the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
Cannot Be True questions ask you to find an answer that contradicts information in the stimulus. When dealing with conditional statements, contradictions involve answers that establish the sufficient condition is present but the necessary condition isn't.

Incorrect. Since most people mistakenly believe that salsa contains fat, the second rule applies. That rule tells us that the food in question can include "non-fat" on the label as long as it notes that the food normally lacks fat. Since Lester's Zesty Salsa includes such a note, this salsa is in compliance with the law.