LSAT 2 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q7

LR Question 7 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: There is no reason why the work of scientists has to be…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: There is no reason why the work of scientists has to be officially confirmed before it is published.

REASONING: Attempts at replicating the results by other scientists will eventually either confirm or disconfirm the results.

ANALYSIS: Think about this question from the point of view of someone who reads stories about scientific results in the media. Results aren’t tested, and so we get all sorts of conflicting stories such as: “Eggs kill you!” and “Eat eggs or you will die!”

It can take years to disprove an inaccurate experiment.

___________

1. CORRECT. If results aren’t tested for years then people may be under a mistaken impression for quite sometime. The original (bad) result will be reported and nothing will contradict it.
2. This would make the stimulus irrelevant to those scientists. But it doesn’t change the relevancy of the argument to scientists whose work isn’t automatically peer-reviewed.
3. This would strengthen the argument, showing that it is easy to test results.
4. In either case, the errors could be corrected by attempts at replication.
5. Same as D. Scientists can make errors whether they work alone or in a team.

Recap: The question begins with “There is no reason why the work of scientists has to be”. It is a Weaken question. Learn how to master LSAT Weaken questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.