LSAT 123 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q19

RC Question 19 Explanation

DISCUSSION: This is a very interesting question. Not because of the right answer – that’s easy to prove using lines from the passage.

No, it’s interesting because every wrong answer is completely insane. Often RC questions have 1-2 insane answers, but it’s rare to see all the wrong answers be totally bonkers.

The LSAT tends to stick to reality. So they usually don’t have an author agree with things that are completely ridiculous and that obviously contradict the world.

I think the LSAT trains you to take what they say as true. That’s correct – you should interpret what they say literally. But you shouldn’t suspend all judgement. If a question asks whether the author agrees with the statement “Copyright infringement should be met with instant beheading”, then you should recognize “woah…..no one would ever believe that. That can’t be in the passage”. ….Answer C is nearly this insane!

Insane beliefs aren’t wrong if they’re in the passage, but you should strongly suspect they aren’t. “Is this insane?” is a good question to ask about RC answers. On RC answers, you should generally be asking “what does this really mean?” and figuring out “is this insane?” is part of determining that meaning.

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1. The author didn’t say this, and it’s also an insane belief. Insane beliefs usually aren’t correct answers.
    
   (It’s insane because most website owners have links on their sites. For example Facebook owns Facebook.com and also links to other sites from there)
2. CORRECT. This answer combines lines 38-40 and lines 44-46. It’s very easy to justify.
3. Like A, this is an insane belief. It means, for example, that since I run a website, you should be able to legally place a spy camera in my house. This answer literally says that whoever makes a website gives up all privacy rights.
4. This contradicts the passage. It’s also insane. It means, for example, that if you link to CNN on Facebook, then you suddenly control who can read CNN’s website.
5. This is bonkers. If this were true, it would mean you could steal your professor’s course website, and pretend it was your own work – as long as you didn’t print it.