LSAT 6 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q25

LR Question 25 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Proposals for extending the United States school year…

QUESTION TYPE: Principle

CONCLUSION: The only policy justifiable by tradition would be to set the length of summer vacation according to the needs of the economy.

REASONING: The original purpose of the policy was to help out the economy by boosting agriculture.

ANALYSIS: The stimulus takes a different approach to tradition.

The people arguing for a three month summer vacation take tradition to mean “what we have always done” which in this case was to take three months off. The reason isn’t important.

The stimulus takes traditions to mean “the original reason why we do the things that we do”. They don’t care what we do: they care why we do it.

Originally, we had Sundays off because it was the day of the Lord. Nowadays most people don’t care about that. Does that mean we should work Sundays? Some people think so, but most people like a rest, whether or not they believe it serves God’s will.

So the original reasons for our actions aren’t always important. This argument would be strengthened by a principle that said that the original reasons for our actions should be important.

___________

1. This sounds tempting, but it doesn’t quite do it. First, we haven’t actually got any evidence that the three month vacations actually do conflict with any more pressing social needs. Second, the argument’s main point is that we should look to the original purpose of a tradition in determining how it should be applied. This principle doesn’t strengthen that point.
2. The Europeans and the Japanese do have different summer schedules. But we’re not told that they expect America to follow their ways.
3. The argument isn’t claiming that all appeals to tradition should be disregarded. They’re claiming that this tradition supports something other than keeping school vacation exactly the same.
4. The argument claims that the original purpose of this tradition actually supports doing away with a three month vacation. The argument isn’t anti-tradition as such: they just think we should look to the original intent.
5. CORRECT. Yes. The stimulus argues that the original purpose was to help the economy. Therefore it could be “traditional” to change the length of the school year.

Recap: The question begins with “Proposals for extending the United States school year”. It is a Principle question. Learn how to master LSAT Principle questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.