LSAT 140 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q2

LR Question 2 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Accountant: The newspaper industry habitually cites the…

QUESTION TYPE: Method of Reasoning

CONCLUSION: Falling circulation and falling advertising are the real reasons newspapers are in trouble.

REASONING: The inflation adjusted price of newsprint is no higher than it was ten years ago.

ANALYSIS: The newspapers said newsprint prices are the cause of their troubles. The author destroys this argument by showing that newsprint is not more expensive than it used to be. The author proposes an alternate cause: falling circulation and advertising.

Note that this alternate cause is not well supported. The author hasn’t proven these factors are hurting newspapers. But we only need to analyze the structure of the argument: the author disproves a claim, and proposes a rival claim.

Three wrong answers mention criticism of a practice or method. The argument doesn’t mention or criticize any methods. An example of such criticism would be “The newspaper industry uses ink, but this is costly. They should use laser printers.”

___________

1. What popular analogy? An analogy is a comparison between two similar situations. That doesn’t happen here. If you chose this answer you should look at the Wikipedia article on analogies; the LSAT mentions them frequently.
2. It’s true that this argument uses historical data. But not to raise doubts about the effectiveness of an approach. The argument merely uses historical data to disprove a point in an argument.
3. Similar to B. The argument doesn’t mention any methods or criticize any methods.
4. CORRECT. The explanation is newsprint. The argument challenges this and introduces another explanation: advertising and circulation.
5. Same as B and C. The argument doesn’t criticize any practices.

Recap: The question begins with “Accountant: The newspaper industry habitually cites the”. It is a Method of Reasoning question. To practice more Method of Reasoning questions, have a look at the LSAT Questions by Type page.