PrepTest 119

[lcid:3573] Prep Test 119 LSAT — Logical Reasoning — S2 Logical reasoning

Question prompt

It is now clear Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

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

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Question Type

Errors in Reasoning Questions

Stimulus Summary

Old belief - Ancient Babylonians were the first to make alcoholic beverages (wine in 1500BC)
New evidence - An Egyptian cup with a picture of a brewery and with beer in it was discovered from 2000BC
Conclusion/new belief - Ancient Egyptians discovered alcoholic beverages

Answer Anticipation

A cup with a picture of a brewery certainly isn’t conclusive proof that Egyptians invented alcoholic beverages, but the chemical traces seem pretty definitive. Based on this evidence, it’s pretty clear that the Egyptians had beer before the Babylonians had wine by about 500 years.
However, the conclusion doesn’t state that the Egyptians had alcoholic beverages before the Babylonians - it states that they were the first society to produce these beverages. Much as the evidence pointing to the Babylonians being first was eventually shown to be wrong by new evidence, it’s possible that there’s more evidence out there proving another society was making alcoholic beverages earlier than the Egyptians. Let’s find an answer raising that possibility.

Answer choices

  1. A
    It makes a generalization Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Even though the evidence here is a single cup, if that cup had beer in it, then that’s sufficient to prove that the Egyptians had access to beer. There doesn’t have to be multiple pieces of evidence to prove that something existed - one piece of evidence (conclusive evidence, which the cup is presented as when it states that the evaluation “reveal[ed]” that it contained beer) is enough to justify that.
  2. B
    It uses the term Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    While the argument does discuss wine with the Babylonians and beer with the Egyptians, they both count as alcoholic beverages, and so there’s no shift in meaning here. Since the conclusion is about the creation of alcoholic beverages, discussing a specific one with respect to different examples is perfectly acceptable.
  3. C
    It presumes, without providing Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    The stimulus never says anything about the Babylonians depended on the Egyptian discovery to make their own. The argument is about who made the discovery first - even if the Babylonians invented wine independent of any knowledge they gained from Egyptian brewers, the argument can still work.
  4. D
    It ignores the possibility Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    This answer highlights that the evidence presented establishes that the Egyptian alcoholic beverage was older than the previously believed oldest such beverage, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the oldest. This first known instance (the Egyptian beer in a cup) might not be the first instance - there may be an older one out there yet to be discovered.
  5. E
    It provides no evidence Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Premises don’t need support - that statement is presented as factual premise, so this doesn’t describe a flaw here.

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