LR Question 5 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Adults who work outside the home spend, on average…
QUESTION TYPE: Paradox
CONCLUSION: People who work at home spend more time during the week making dinners.
But dinners served at home are similar (in quality, variety, etc.) whether or not someone works from home.
ANALYSIS: The logical explanation is that people who work outside of home eat out more. When they do eat at home they put in the same effort. So each meal prepped at home takes the same amount of time, but stay-at-home workers make more meals at home.
Their total time spent cooking meals is higher even though their average time per meal is the same.
___________
- Both groups had dinners with similar nutritional content. So if this is true of work-at-home adults then it’s also true of adults who work away from home.
- The stimulus talked about dinner. This talks about breakfast.
- This doesn’t explain why dinners were similar when one group spent much less time preparing. This just tells us an irrelevant fact about adults who work outside the home.
- CORRECT. If you work away from home then you eat out more. 2-3 times per week might equal 100 minutes less spent on prepping meals.
You spend exactly as much time prepping each meal you do eat at home, which explains why they are similar to those prepped by people who work at home. - Planning a meal is not the same thing as prepping time. If anything, planning should reduce prepping time for adults who work at home. Prepping a meal can include anything from washing veggies to plating the food, but doesn’t refer to things like planning that week’s menu/grocery list or going grocery shopping.
Recap: The question begins with “Adults who work outside the home spend, on average”. It is a Paradox question. Learn how to master LSAT Paradox questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.
More Resources for Paradox Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Paradox questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers paradox questions.
Graeme, your analysis, including the explanation for choice E. refers to the time that meals were “cooked.” The stimulus uses the word “prepared.” This causes answer E. to be deceptively attractive because planning a meal is arguably part of preparing it.
You make a valid point! Thanks for bringing attention to that. Cooked is indeed too narrow of a word, so we have switched it to prepped to be more accurate.
However, preparing food refers to assembling but not the planning. It could refer to anything from washing vegetables to plating the food, but it doesn’t actually refer to planning out that week’s menu or going grocery shopping. So prepared is indeed wider than cooked, but still different from planning. Hope that helps – let me know if the explanation is still unclear!