PrepTest 137

[lcid:3646] Prep Test 137 LSAT — Logical Reasoning — S3 Logical reasoning

Question prompt

Many nurseries sell fruit Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

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

Question Type

Must Be True Questions

Answer choices

  1. A
    Most nurseries mislabel at Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. Not a single statement in the stimulus about nurseries talks about "[m]ost" of them, so this answer is too strong to be supported by the stimulus.
  2. B
    Some of the nurseries Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. Since some nurseries have labeled the Stark Sweet Melody as miniature and others have not, then some of them have labeled it correctly no matter what is true.
  3. C
    Any nectarine tree of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. Without knowing if the Stark Sweet Melody is suitable for growing in a tub or pot, we can't know if labeling it miniature is correct or not.
  4. D
    Some nectarine trees that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. It's not clear that a tree not labeled "miniature" is labeled at all, let alone incorrectly. Even disregarding that, there's no basis for determining a tree not labeled "miniature" is labeled incorrectly as there's no premise telling us how to determine that.
  5. E
    Unless the Stark Sweet Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    Correct. Argument or Facts:
    Facts

    Question Type:
    Must Be True

    Stimulus Summary:
    Nurseries-some-Label Stark Sweet Melody nectarines as miniature
    Nurseries-some-not Label Stark Sweet Melody nectarines as miniature
    not Suitable to grow in a tub/pot → not Correctly labeled as miniature

    Answer Anticipation:
    We cut a lot of information out of this stimulus to focus on elements that are strong enough to allow for inferences and overlap with other statements. In particular, that last statement provides a general principle—a conditional—that can be applied to particular cases. And since we get a particular case—the nurseries and their labeling of Stark Sweet Melody—we should see if there's an inference we can draw there.

    . . . But there isn't! The reason for that is that the sufficient condition of that general principle is about whether a variety of fruit tree is suitable to grow in a tub/pot. There's no discussion of that in the rest of the stimulus—certainly not as far as Stark Sweet Melody is concerned. So in order to apply the principle to that situation, we'd have to know whether or not it is suitably grown in a tub or pot.

    Therefore, since that's really the only avenue that an answer could come from, it's likely that the answer will present that piece of information and allow a conclusion to be drawn. Since the sufficient condition is a variety of fruit tree not being suitable to grow in a tub/pot, then, the correct answer will likely establish that the Stark Sweet Melody nectarine isn't suitable to be grown there, and therefore those nurseries that label it as miniature are doing so incorrectly.

    Answer Explanation:
    If the Stark Sweet Melody variety is not suitable for growing in a tub or pot, then it's not correctly labeled as "miniature." Since some nurseries label it as "miniature," they are therefore doing so incorrectly. This answer adds in the information about the suitability of the Stark Sweet Melody for growing in a pot/tub and then correctly applies the conditional, so it's the correct answer.

    Key Takeaway:
    In some Must Be True questions, information relevant to the application of a conditional to a provided example will not show up until the answer choices. This definitely increases the difficulty, but knowing it's a possibility means you can look out for it! When a conditional is established but there's not enough information to apply it, identify what information is needed and focus on answer choices that bring it up.

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