LSAT 157 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q5

LR Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Columnist: Many people with access to the Internet express…

QUESTION TYPE: Identify the Conclusion

CONCLUSION: Learning about other cultures probably will not satisfy their longing.

REASONING: Many people with Internet access express a longing for emotional connection to a global community, and this often leads them to use it to learn about other cultures. However, the Internet is better at providing information than facilitating a feeling of connectedness.

ANALYSIS: It’s important in Identify the Conclusion questions to look at the role each part of the stimulus is playing. This can be easier if you remove the subject matter and look at the logic in the sentence structure, like so:

1. Some people have X goal.
2. They often try to achieve X by doing Y.
3. However, doing Y probably won’t work.
4. This is because Y is not effective at achieving X.

See how much simpler it is? It just takes some practice to do it quickly and effectively. Here, we see that part 1 is telling us a fact about what some people want. Part 2 elaborates on it by telling us how they might get what they want. This is also not a conclusion – it is another fact that is laying the foundation for the conclusion. Part 3 is the conclusion, and we can see that part 4 is the evidence for that conclusion.

___________

1. This is not the conclusion. No evidence is offered in the stimulus to support it – it is just a fact stated.
2. This is another fact stated without support – it is not the conclusion.
3. This is a fact offered in support of the conclusion, but is not itself a conclusion.
4. CORRECT. See above analysis.
5. This is something that may be true based on the passage, but is a leap from the passage itself. The author doesn’t say this, so it can’t be the conclusion.

Recap: The question begins with “Columnist: Many people with access to the Internet express”. It is a Identify The Conclusion question. Learn how to master LSAT Identify questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.