LSAT 105 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q16

LR Question 16 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: In a town containing a tourist attraction …

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken (Exception)

CONCLUSION: Visitors are selling or sharing passes to the tourist attraction.

REASONING: Hotel and restaurant revenues increased more rapidly than the sale of annual passes to the attraction.

ANALYSIS: If this were indeed true, we would expect pass sales to be lower than expected while visitor numbers remain stable or grow. To weaken this claim, we need an alternative explanation for why pass sales didn’t increase as much as hotel and restaurant revenue. Maybe people just aren’t as interested in this tourist attraction anymore and there’s something else bringing them to town.

But note that this is an exception question. So four answers will weaken the hypothesis by providing alternative explanations to illicit selling. The correct answer will not weaken the hypothesis (it will either support it or not affect it).

___________

1. This weakens the hypothesis by providing an alternative explanation. Tourists are coming to town for other attractions, not this one.
2. Also weakens. If pass holders visited the attraction more frequently, fewer new passes may have been sold because they just have to buy one once a year. But they still need to pay for a hotel and food every time they come.
3. Also weakens. If hotel and meal prices rose, then higher revenues from those sectors don’t necessarily indicate more tourists. It just means higher prices.
4. CORRECT. The average length of the stay being the same neither supports nor challenges the hypothesis.
5. Also weakens. If pass photographs were regularly checked, that would make selling or sharing them difficult.