LSAT 104 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q14

LR Question 14 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: In 1712 the government of Country Y appointed a censor…

QUESTION TYPE: Must be True

FACTS:

1. Country Y used censors in the 1700s.
2. The first censor approved half of the books he saw.
3. The second censor approved three quarters of the books he saw.
4. Both censors approved the same number of books.

ANALYSIS: I’ll prove this with numbers. Let’s say each censor approved 75 books.

Censor one approved half. That means censor one rejected 75 books as well. He saw 150 books in total.

Censor two approved three quarters. That means censor two rejected 25 books. He saw 100 books in total.

More books were sent to censor one than to censor two.

___________

1. We have no idea how many books were published before censorship. And it’s possible the censors did mistakenly allow some critical books.
2. This is false. See the analysis above.
3. CORRECT. This has to be true, since both censors approved the same number of books but censor one rejected more books.
4. Both censors approved the same number of books. It’s hard to say which one was more lenient. We’d have to know how many of the submitted books criticized the governmet.
5. Tempting, but it’s possible to write an unpublished manuscript without submitting it to the censor. There could have been many people who wrote books but got discouraged and never submitted them. We don’t know whether this was more common under the first or second censor.

Recap: The question begins with “In 1712 the government of Country Y appointed a censor”. It is a Must be True question. Learn more about LSAT MBT questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.