LSAT 136 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q2

LR Question 2 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Museum curator: Our ancient Egyptian collection includes…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: The earthenware hippopotamus was a religious object.

REASONING: The ancient Egyptians thought that breaking the legs off a representation of an animal would help the dead win their battles in the afterlife. The hippopotamus had its legs broken off.

ANALYSIS: This sounds like a good argument. But the author is assuming that the legs were broken when the hippopotamus was placed in the tomb.

It’s possible the hippopotamus broke by accident after it was placed in the tomb. Perhaps an earthquake or grave robbers broke it.

___________

1. This would help the argument, but just because the tomb was a child’s tomb, that doesn’t mean that the hippo was a toy. Children need religious objects to help them in the afterlife, too.
2. This would strengthen the argument by showing that the object wasn’t a toy. But it’s not necessary that all earthenware hippopotami were religious objects.
   This hippopotamus could be a religious object even if other earthenware hippopotami were toys.
3. It’s fine for the tomb to have been reopened, as long as no one broke the hippopotamus for non-religious reasons.
    
   Indeed, maybe the tomb was re-opened because the priest forgot to break the hippo’s legs. Perhaps they went back in to make sure the hippo was a proper religious object.
4. CORRECT. If the legs were broken by a natural occurrence such as an earthquake, then we have no reason to think that the hippo was a religious object. The broken legs were the only evidence.
5. The author never said that being upside down was significant. The broken legs were the main point.