PrepTest 103

[lcid:3508] Prep Test 103 LSAT — Logical Reasoning — S1 Logical reasoning

Question prompt

Five thousand of the Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Strengthen with Sufficient Premise Questions

Stimulus Summary

5,000/50,000 books in country Z in ‘91 were novels 25 were turned into movies in ‘92 100 films were released in ‘92 Therefore - No more than one-quarter (25%) of movies released in ‘92 were based on books published in country Z in ‘91

Answer Anticipation

This stimulus throws a bunch of numbers at you, and when that happens, we should check to see if there’s a Percent vs. Amount flaw. Here, there are percents and amounts, but we also get the total number of movies released in ‘92, and totals sometimes allow a jump to be made between percents and amounts. Does that apply here? It does. We know 100 films were released in ‘92, and 25 of them were based on novels published in ‘91. From this, we can conclude that 25% of the films released in ‘92 were based on novels published in ‘91. So where’s the flaw? Isn’t that the conclusion? Nope - check the details! The conclusion is about books, whereas the premises that go into the math are about novels. While all novels are books, not all the books are novels. If outside of the 25 novels turned into movies there were also a number of movies based on, say, nonfiction biographies of famous figures, then that would add to the total number of movies based on books and throw the math off. So since the argument is valid using the novel numbers, let’s look for an answer stating that all the movies based off of books in country Z were based on novels, not other types of books.

Answer choices

  1. A
    None of the scripts Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The argument is about books based on novels, not scripts written by novelists. A novelist could write a fresh script, not one that adapts a novel.
  2. B
    None of the films Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    This anwer establishes that the math surrounding novel adaptations tells the full story on book adaptations in Country Z. With all other books ruled out as a source of adaptation for movies, the conclusion holds, so this is the correct answer.
  3. C
    None of the books Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Books published in ‘92 are out of scope of the argument. We care about books published in ‘91 and movies released in ‘92.
  4. D
    Some of the films Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    These movies couldn’t have been based on novels (or books) published in ‘91 since they were much older than that, so they don’t change anything in the stimulus up and thus can’t add information that validates the conclusion.
  5. E
    Some of the films Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Movies released in ‘91 are out of scope - movies released in ‘92 are the topic of the stimulus.

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