LSAT 109 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q25

LR Question 25 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Essayist: Every contract negotiator has been lied to…

QUESTION TYPE: Must be True

FACTS:

1. If you negotiate contracts, you’ve been lied to. (C ➞ LT)
2. If you’ve been lied to, you’ve lied to others. (LT ➞ LO)
3. If you lie to others, you’ve practiced deception. (LO ➞ D)

ANALYSIS: Joining the statements above, we get:

C ➞ LT ➞ LO ➞ D

Every contract inspector has practiced deception.

If you have trouble with sufficient-necessary statements, practice rearranging them so that the terms match up. Notice that I put the last sentence from the stimulus second instead of third. That way it’s easy to connect the two statements that involve “lying to others”.

___________

1. CORRECT. See the explanation above.
2. We don’t know anything about those who practice deception. We only know that if you lie to others, you practice deception.
3. The second part of the first sentence says this is false.
4. This doesn’t have to be true. You could tell the first lie, before the contract negotiator has had a chance to lie to you. Also, it could be true that contract negotiators are generally honest, but have occasionally practiced deception.
5. We know that if you’ve been lied to, you’ve lied to others. But the reverse (this answer choice) doesn’t have to be true. Maybe some people lie to everyone else, but are only told the truth by others.

Recap: The question begins with “Essayist: Every contract negotiator has been lied to”. It is a Must be True question. Learn how to master LSAT MBT questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.