LSAT 33, Logical Reasoning II, Q23

QUESTION TEXT: Maria won this year's local sailboat…

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption 

CONCLUSION: Maria trained hard.

REASONING: Maria beat Sue, the winner of the last four races.

ANALYSIS: This is a bad argument. We don’t know how many people were in the race, how well Sue performed, if Sue’s boat sank, etc. We don’t even know if training is even necessary for a sailboat race. 

The correct answer shows that training is a necessary condition for winning. 

___________

1. This could mean that neither of them trained hard. 
2. This doesn’t tell us that if Maria won the boat race then she trained hard.
3. CORRECT. The only way to win was to train hard. And Maria did win. So Maria must have trained hard. 
4. This definitely doesn’t tell us whether Maria trained hard.
5. This doesn’t have anything to do with training. 

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