LR Question 14 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Sharon heard her favorite novelist speak out again…
QUESTION TYPE: Principle
SITUATION: Sharon’s favorite novelist criticized a political candidate that Sharon supports. Sharon decided that the novelist was not so smart, and kept her opinion of the political candidate.
ANALYSIS: This principle question gives you an individual situation. You need to find a principle that matches the information in this stimulus.
Sharon seems to trust her political candidate more than she trusts the novelist. That’s about all we know. She liked both the writer and the candidate for a long time, but supported the politician when the two of them disagreed.
There are a few possible interpretations:
- Given a choice between a long favored novelist and a long favored politician, some people will choose the politician.
- If someone contradicts your opinion, you’ll probably disagree with them and stick to your opinion.
___________
- This isn’t supported. Sharon was one of the novelist’s most dedicated fans, yet she wasn’t influenced by the novelist.
- This is far too broad. It matches none of the elements of the stimulus, and it tells us that we should almost always reject the political opinions of artists. But Sharon might have listened to the novelist if she hadn’t been a long term supporter of the politician.
- This is too broad. We don’t actually know that the artist was wrong to speak out. The novelist lost Sharon’s support, but maybe many others agreed with the novelist.
- CORRECT. This works. Sharon had supported the politician for a long time. The novelist contradicted her. Rather than reassess her opinion, Sharon rejected the novelist.
- This doesn’t work. Sharon’s allegiance to both the novelist and the politician was longstanding.
More Resources for Principle Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Principle questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers principle questions.
ok no. The ‘possible interpretations’ first bullet point is incorrect. Sharon DIDNT support the novelist for years. That’s why A is wrong. It just says her ‘favorite novelist’ . we dont know how long she supported the novelist.
I take your point, but it’s a nitpick. Nitpicks tend not to be the basis of LSAT flaws.
I said “long favored”, not “supported for years” You don’t generally choose a favorite novelist within a month. It takes reading 2-3 books at least, usually over some period of time. And then the novelist was unlikely to speak out immediately after Sharon chose her favorite.
If you interpret long favored as 6+ months, I’d say in 99.9% of the situations where someone is in Sharon’s shoes the novelist would have been favored (not favorite) for 6+ months. It’s a reasonable interpretation and it doesn’t relate to A.
A was about whether Sharon was dedicated. And since the novelist was Sharon’s favorite, Sharon likely was dedicated, and yet the novelist didn’t have influence. So A certainly doesn’t conform to the stimulus.
This is a great explanation, but I wanna know how is it that you know that Sharon has liked the novelist for roughly the same number of years she has liked the politician? I know it says favorite and then estimation, but I didn’t wanna jump to the conclusion that it meant longstanding. This is the detail that actually led me to also consider choice E. A reply would be much appreciated!
Good point! The stimulus doesn’t actually say that she’s liked this novelist for a long time. We only know that this is her favourite novelist. The rest of the explanation still stands, but your comment is well-taken.
I also thought about the same thing. The E is definitively variable choice because there is no clear indication about how long did Sharon know this novelist. I wonder what will be the percentage of people getting this wrong on exam date and how many people file a complaint after the exam.
Well, it’s a reasonable assumption that someone doesn’t become your favorite novelist after you read a single book. It’s of course possible that:
1. Sharon newly discovered the novelist, and
2. Sharon read a lot of the novelists books and decided “this is my favorite novelist”
3. Shortly after that, the novelist spoke out against the politician
But it is pretty improbable. I’d give 99.9% odds that by the time the novelist spoke out, Sharon wasn’t a new reader of the novelist.
In any event the main reason E is wrong is because the stimulus doesn’t specify new. But if we define new as “within the past couple of months” it’s just incredibly unlikely all of this happened in that timespan.
Note: This is an old comment but I wanted to clarify the point.