LSAT 133 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q15

LR Question 15 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: It was misleading for James to tell the Core…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: It was misleading for James to say that the chair of the anthropology department endorsed his proposal.

REASONING: The chair has said she would support the proposal, but only if the draft would include all of the recommendations that James would make to the Core Curriculum Committee.

ANALYSIS: The argument is assuming that James added recommendations beyond those that were already in the draft he showed the chair. If James didn’t add anything to his draft then James did in fact have the chair’s support.

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1. The argument is not about whether James’ recommendations will be implemented. It’s about whether James’ statement was misleading. 
2. This is beside the point. Whether or not the chair would approve of other recommendations, she wanted to know about them beforehand. She wanted to avoid surprises, most likely.
3. This could be why James told the committee that he had the chair’s support. But this isn’t a necessary assumption; the argument wouldn’t fail if this answer were false.
4. If James didn’t think this then the proposal is stronger.
5. CORRECT. If the draft proposal did include all of the recommendations then James had the chair’s support and everything was fine.