LR Question 2 Explanation, by LSATHacks
QUESTION TEXT: Florist: Some people like to have green carnations…
QUESTION TYPE: Identify The Conclusion
CONCLUSION: Florists should buy white carnations for St. Patrick’s day.
REASONING: People like green carnations on St. Patrick’s Day. Green flowers are rare in nature. It’s easy to dye white carnations green.
ANALYSIS: This argument gives advice to florists. Anytime an argument says someone ‘should’ do something, that recommendation is almost certainly the conclusion.
___________
- CORRECT. The rest of the argument supports this. It’s easy to dye white carnations green. People like green flowers, and naturally green flowers are rare.
- This is evidence to support the conclusion that florists should buy white flowers instead.
- This is evidence for the conclusion. This is the reason that florists should buy white flowers and dye them green.
- This is a reason that florists should buy white carnations, rather than rare green carnations.
- This explains why florists must use white carnations instead.
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i was taught thus is the conclusion indicator, thus i thought “it is very difficult for plant breeders to produce green carnations” is the conclusion. i guess this is the part where see the forest and not the tree comes in
Thus is indeed a conclusion indicator, but there can be more than one conclusion in an argument. Here, thus indicates an intermediate conclusion. The two indicators of the main conclusion are:
* Then: This indicates something that follows from the earlier info
* Wise: Any kind of advice or moral judgement tends to be a conclusion
For example: You need food to survive, and food costs money. Thus, you need money to survive. It is prudent, then, to always make sure you have some money.
The conclusion is the final sentence. The second sentence supports this idea.
The ultimate conclusion test is no single indicator, but rather asking yourself: “Why are they telling me this? Which sentence supports the other sentence?”
All the rules for conclusion identification are helpful hints but none are absolute.
Note: This is an old comment but I wanted to clarify the point.