LSAT 144 | Section 1 | Reading Comprehension: Q26

RC Question 26 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: It can be inferred that the author of passage B…

DISCUSSION: I couldn’t prephrase this one. Instead, I had to read each answer and make a shortlist of those that might be right. Then I checked those promising answers against passage B.

It needn’t take that long to check. If you have a good mental map of the passage then you can locate where information is likely to be, very quickly.

___________

1. Passage B didn’t even mention Popper. This can’t possibly be right.
2. CORRECT. Tricky, but true. See lines 62-64. The successful prediction of Mercury’s orbit helped confirm Einstein’s theory. That’s positive evidence supporting a theory.
3. This is something passage B agrees with, since the author listed auxiliary assumptions used in making predictions.
4. Passage B didn’t mention a logical asymmetry, so we can’t know the author’s opinion.
   The final lines of Passage B do mention positive evidence confirming a theory, but asymmetry doesn’t necessarily mean positive evidence has no role. Asymmetry just means that negative evidence is more powerful than positive evidence.
5. Passage B never mentioned what the role of scientific research is.