LR Question 21 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Essayist: Winners of a Nobel prize for science…
QUESTION TYPE: Must Be True
FACTS:
- Nobel prize winners are usually professional. They’ve all made big contributions to science.
- Amateur scientists sometimes make big contributions to science. (C some AS)
- Amateur scientists are motivated by love of discovery. (AS ➞ LD)
ANALYSIS: If two facts mention the same term, you can usually combine them.
We know amateur scientists are always motivated by a love of discovery, and some of them have made major contributions.
So some people who have made major contributions were motivated by a love of discovery.
Here’s the same thing as a diagram:
C some AS ➞ LD
Conclusion: C some LD
___________
- We don’t know this. Maybe all the amateurs who made contributions also won a Nobel.
- Who knows? Maybe professional scientists are also motivated by love of discovery. The question didn’t say that only amateur scientists have this motivation.
- CORRECT. This is true. Amateurs have made many contributions, and amateurs are always motivated by the love of discovery.
- We have no idea. We know some professionals win the Nobel and make major contributions. We also know many amateurs make contributions.We don’t know how many are in each group. It’s possible that amateur scientists make more contributions.
- We have no idea if love of discovery and significant contributions are related for professional scientists. The stimulus says nothing about this.
More Resources for Must Be True Questions
- Conditional Reasoning Article: Learn about conditional statements on the LSAT.
- LR Diagrams Guide: Learn how to draw LR diagrams.
- Intro to Conditional Reasoning: This intro course lesson covers conditional reasoning basics.
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Must Be True questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers must be true questions.
Chose B because It says in the passage “and UNLIKE professional scientists… amateur scientists..” so the author or essayist makes the distinction that proffessional scientists and amateur scientists differ in this way.
Not quite. The distinction is this:
Amateur scientists: only love of discovery
Pro scientists: Economic necessity, desire for fame, love of discovery –> All of these are possible motives
Professionals may have other motives. But that doesn’t exclude them from potentially having love of discovery as a motive. The key difference for amateurs is that they ONLY have a single motive.
For the claim “Amateur scientists sometimes make big contributions to science.” why is it written “C some AS” and not “AS make C” ?
“Some” statements are reversible, e.g. “Some black cats are owned by men” can also be written as “some men own black cats”.
We can diagram “amateur scientists sometimes make big contributions to science” as either:
(1) AS some C
(2) C some AS
The analysis diagrams the statement as “C some AS” in order to connect the statement to the love of discovery:
(1) C some AS
(2) AS –> LD
Conclusion: C some LD
Conclusion restatement: LD some C
Answer (C) is equivalent to the conclusion restatement.