LR Question 15 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: The production of leather and fur for clothing is…
QUESTION TYPE: Principle – Conform
FACTS:
- Leather and fur clothing have tended to be expensive, because much labor was required to produce them.
- But now fur and leather are less popular. So they cost less.
- Other materials that require less labor are now more popular. Prices of these materials have risen.
ANALYSIS: This is sort of like a “must be true” question. But since it’s a principle question, you have to figure out the rule behind the facts. We can tease out these rules here:
- Labor tends to be expensive.
- Fashionability matters too. Popular materials tend to be more expensive. Unpopular materials tend to be cheaper.
Deciding these rules in advance helps you avoid trap answers. Note, in particular, that leather/fur good can still be expensive. This question is just saying their prices have dropped compared to past prices.
This is the distinction between relative and absolute, which shows up all the time on the LSAT.
___________
- This is a trap. The stimulus discusses material prices, but this is about manufactured goods, which is a step removed. Also, we only know that fashionability affects material prices, not that both fashionability and materials determine the price of manufactured goods.
- The stimulus didn’t mention “practical” clothes.
- The stimulus says that some materials require less labor and are more fashionable, but it does not suggest that one causes the other, or that all low-labor materials tend to be fashionable. This introduces a causal generalization that the stimulus doesn’t support.
- Nonsense. The stimulus doesn’t even mention appearance, and this answer defies common sense. Obviously fashion is more complicated than just appearance.
- CORRECT. This is vague enough to be correct. Intrinsically speaking, leather/fur should be expensive, because they require much labor. Yet, fashion has caused their prices to drop. Fashion changes are indeed a cultural trend, using any reasonable definition of the word.
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.
A simpler reason why A is wrong is that the stimulus is about the prices of materials whereas the answer is about the price of manufactured goods made of such materials, which is on short logical step removed.
I don’t think you explanation of A is correct where you say that fashionability and materials affect the price of manufactured goods]. Rather, we only know that the fashionability of materials affects the price of such materials.
Good catch, thanks! The original explanation for A overstated what the stimulus supports, so I have edited it.
Your explanation for why AC C is incorrect is not great.
It takes “little” out of context where the argument said “relatively little” which undermines your point about it not addressing relative cost.
You’re right, thanks for catching that! The explanation for C has been edited. Let me know if you still have questions.
I don’t understand how practicality is beyond the scope of the stimulus but cultural trends is not. The stimulus provides no context that would insinuate this to be true. I chose A “the answer trap” but in my understanding, it was the only reasonable answer.
It’s because fashion, by dictionary definition, is a cultural trend. Whereas practicality has no such analogue in the stimulus.
The LSAT requires you to be reasonable about what words mean and use common sense. Would people agree that fashion is part of culture? If yes, then it is. Whereas practicality is about how clothes are used, and this isn’t mentioned.
Note: This is an old comment but I wanted to clarify the point.
Another reason for rejecting A would be to imagine a scenario where, in the future, if leather and fur were equally fashionable as the less-labor intensive materials such as cotton, then the leather and fur may be marketed with a higher price than cotton since, in addition to being fashionable it has the whole labor-intensive thing going for it, right?
That’s correct. Cost of production will clearly affect price.
Note: This is an old comment but I wanted to clarify the point.