LSAT 117 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q5

LR Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Barr: The National Tea Association cites …

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: Tea isn’t more popular now.

REASONING: A neutral polling company found that there’s been no change in the amount of tea sold in the last 20 years.

ANALYSIS: Barr thinks the National Tea Association is probably biased when they talk about tea’s increasing popularity. Fair enough.

Barr thinks we should, instead, look at the Survey Group’s data. The amount of tea sold in the stores they tracked hasn’t changed in the last 20 years. Based on this, he concludes that tea isn’t becoming more popular now.

So we’re supposed to trust the Survey Group. But what are these “numerous stores”? The National Tea Association is national. So they’re concerned about tea nationally.

Are the stores that the Survey Group measured across the country? If they only checked a few stores in the Pacific Northwest, maybe that’s not enough to say something about tea overall.

___________

1. The fact that the National Tea Association plans to do its own survey next year tells us nothing about whether tea is currently becoming more popular.
2. Being receptive to trying new teas does not mean people are actually drinking more tea. This is evidence about attitudes, not popularity.
3. Too speculative. This attacks their funding source, but there’s no reason to think that consumer advocacy groups would bias data about tea sales.
4. CORRECT. If all the stores surveyed are located in one small region of the country, the sample may be completely unrepresentative. Tea sales may have remained flat in that region while increasing elsewhere. So Barr can’t confidently conclude that tea is no more popular nationwide.
5. An expensive ad campaign might explain why tea is receiving more attention, but it doesn’t prove that tea has actually become more popular. The ads might have failed.