LSAT 148 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q24

LR Question 24 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Lucinda will soon be attending National University…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Parallel Reasoning

CONCLUSION: Lucinda will probably live in Western Hall.

REASONING:

• Western Hall (most) ➞ engineering major
• Lucinda will be an engineering major

ANALYSIS: This argument ignores that there might be dozens of residences at National University. And maybe Western Hall is a really tiny one with only 20 people. If so, it’s far more likely that Lucinda will be in a larger residence.

Basically, you can’t go backwards on a “most” statement. You can only read them left to right. To parallel this, look for an argument with one most statement, and a conclusion that reads it backwards.

You can waste a lot of time trying to analyze the answers on this type of question. Your first pass on the answer should be a skim, you should be looking for two things:

• Is there a most statement?
• Is the conclusion the thing on the left hand side of the argument? (I.e. reading the most statement right to left)

Then, it looks like a match, and you can analyze that answer more closely. You must narrow things down first before testing answers, or this type of question will take forever.

___________

1. This reads the most statement left to right, so it doesn’t match.
   It’s not technically a good argument, mind you – it would be more accurate to say “our city will join a group that is mostly economic hubs”
   Diagrams:
   Shopping mall (most) ➞ economic hub
   Our city is building a shopping mall.
   Therefore, our city will probably become a hub.
2. This is a fairly good argument that reads the “most” statement left to right.
   Diagrams:
   Regional hub (most) ➞ tremendous economic growth sometime
   Our city is a hub, which hasn’t experienced growth.
   Therefore, we will probably have growth in the future.
3. This doesn’t even have a “most” statement! It definitely isn’t parallel. It’s a waste of time to analyze this answer further – when under timed conditions you should be looking specifically for answers with “most”. But, I’ll draw the diagrams below.
   Diagrams:
   Economic hub ➞ excellent transport
   We have bad transport. We’ll never become a hub.
   (This is wrong because a city might build better transport in the process of becoming a hub.)
4. This is a totally different structure. It takes facts, and concludes a “most” statement. The original took a “most” statement and concluded facts.
   Diagrams:
   We had a mall ten years ago.
   We had a growth spurt since then.
   Therefore: city build mall (most) ➞ growth
5. CORRECT. This answer proves the right hand side of the “most” statement and concludes the left hand side. Just like the stimulus, this reads the “most” statement backwards. Which doesn’t work: building a mall in a town of 50 people wouldn’t give it good odds of becoming a hub.
   Diagrams:
   Economic hub (most) ➞ shopping mall
   Our city built a mall.
   Therefore it will become a hub.

Recap: The question begins with “Lucinda will soon be attending National University”. It is a Flawed Parallel Reasoning question. To practice more Flawed Parallel Reasoning questions, have a look at the LSAT Questions by Type page.