LR Question 3 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Cable TV stations have advantages that enable…
QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen – Exception
CONCLUSION: Cable TV stations can get more advertisers because cable TV has some advantages.
REASONING: Cable’s advantages include:
- Niche programming such as news, sports and movies
- Cable also earns money from subscription fees
- Cable TV has worldwide viewers due to multinational programming
ANALYSIS: This argument makes a classic error: incomplete comparison. It only tells us the advantages of cable. It doesn’t tell us about disadvantages of cable, or whether broadcast TV also has some unique advantages.
The argument also fails to connect the advantages of cable TV to advertisers. We can support the argument by showing that advertisers like the features that cable TV offers.
Remember that this is an exception question. The right answer will be irrelevant or weaken the argument.
___________
- CORRECT. This weakens the argument by showing that at least some broadcast networks also have a multinational advantage.
- This shows that broadcast lacks one of the advantages of cable.
- Cable has low costs. So this answers shows that low costs will help cable get more subscribers.
- Cable has a worldwide audience. This answer shows that such a worldwide audience will help cable attract advertisers.
- This shows that a niche 24 hour news channel will help cable attract advertisers.
More Resources for Strengthen Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Strengthen questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers strengthen questions.
Hi Graeme,
Thanks for the thorough explanation. However, shouldn’t the type of this question be inference-exception instead of strength-exception?
Thank you,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention Wei. Yes, I’d agree this isn’t a “strengthen-exception” question; I’d argue it’s a “most strongly supported-exception” question.
Also, at LSAT Hacks, we use “must be true” and “most strongly supported” to denote question types that fall into the “inference” category that some other prep tests companies use. These are all equally valid ways to name the question type, we just use a slightly different terminology.
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