Logical reasoning PrepTest 153 · Section 3 · Question 16

Incorrect. Could be true. We only have rules for the popular novelists; the rules for unpopular novelists may well allow this same trait. It's even possible from the stimulus that all people have this capacity! Based on the stimulus alone, we don't know of anyone who lacks it.

Incorrect. This could be true, as long as those novelists aren't popular. And this answer choice doesn't claim that they are, so it's a CBT and therefore incorrect.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Cannot Be True

Stimulus Summary:
IF popular novelist → THEN vividly imagine large numbers of characters, each having a personality and attitude completely different from each other and the novelist
IF popular novelist → THEN capable of empathizing with people who have goals different from novelist's goals, AND will have some doubts about value of their own desires.

Answer Anticipation:
"Could be true EXCEPT" boils down to MUST BE FALSE. So, we're looking for something that's impossible, and the rules in the stimulus give us a few options. It's impossible to be a popular novelist and lack any of these necessary conditions.

Answer Explanation:
Ah-ha! They tried to trick us by flipping the order of the terms, but Some statements are reversible, so it still works. This is the same as "some popular novelists lack the capacity to empathize . . . " which directly contradicts a rule from the stimulus. Booo, this is out.

Key Takeaway:
On implication questions with an EXCEPT, the most common error students make is forgetting about the EXCEPT. In this case, that would mean choosing a CBT answer, thinking you're doing a CBT question. (Sounds like a mistake you'd never make? Try running into one of these after 3 hours of your official LSAT exam, when your brain is T-I-R-E-D!) Cut down on that error by instantly converting the prompt, i.e., CBT Except becomes Must Be False. MBT Except becomes Could Be False. Write the new prompt down and cross out the old one, so you remember what to look for.

Incorrect. This could be true. All we know about people who lack doubts about the value of their own desires is that they're not popular novelists.

Incorrect. If only, right? We'd all be popular novelists. But this could be true (though it's probably not), since we don't know anything about writers in general based on the stimulus.