LSAT 145 | Section 1 | Reading Comprehension: Q11

RC Question 11 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The author ascribes which one of the following…

DISCUSSION: The question gives you no specific direction. But once you scan the answers, you can see that they’re all talking about the economists’ view of community moral judgements.

You should know that’s in the second paragraph. If you skim that paragraph, you’ll see in line 17 that the economists think that community judgements are irrelevant.

D is a trap answer. It has the right word (“irrelevant”), but it refers to the wrong thing.

___________

1. In paragraph 2, we see that the economists don’t consider community views to be important.
2. Line 17 contradicts this. The economists think community moral judgements should not be a factor.
3. The economists say moral judgement should not be a factor. But that doesn’t mean moral judgement is always too harsh. It’s possible that for some crimes the community might set the fine too low, because the crime was seen as morally not bad.
4. This is a very tempting trap answer. It’s true that community judgement is irrelevant. But irrelevant to what? This answer says “to assessing the morality of corporations”.
   That’s not it – the economists were saying morality was irrelevant to setting penalties. Very different.
5. CORRECT. Line 17 says this directly. Community judgement should not be a factor.