LSAT 80, Logical Reasoning II, Q9, LSATHacks

QUESTION TEXT: Pundit: It is good to have national leaders voted out…

QUESTION TYPE: Identify the Conclusion

CONCLUSION: It is useful to vote national politicians out of office every few years.

REASONING: Reforms usually happen soon after a government is elected. If leaders don't solve a problem quickly, and it persists, then leaders will have an incentive to deny the problem.

ANALYSIS: “Identify the conclusion” questions are virtually entirely structural. You don't even have to analyze the argument's content in most cases. Here, there are two structural words:

• “Good.” Moral words such as “good” are generally used in conclusions.
• “The reason is that”. This indicates that the sentence just before was the conclusion. The sentence after “the reason is that” is a premise supporting the conclusion.

So, the first sentence is the conclusion. In the answers, I analyze the argument more in depth, but that's really not how I approached this question. I just looked at the two structural cues and though “Oh, it's the first sentence” and chose that answer.

___________

1. This an inference you can make by combining the final two sentences. But the conclusion is that we therefore should occasionally vote politicians out of office. The conclusion is moral, whereas this answer is factual.
2. This is a premise that supports the conclusion that we should occasionally vote these leaders out.
3. This is a premise supporting the conclusion that we should vote leaders out occasionally. This lets us get new leaders who will solve problems early in their mandate.
4. The argument seems to be arguing the opposite of this: we should only give politicians a few years, and then vote them out. Even if they're solving problems today, they'll have an incentive to stop doing so tomorrow.
5. CORRECT. This is what the first sentence says, and structural cues show that the first sentence is the conclusion.

Recap: The question begins with “Pundit: It is good to have national”. It is a Identify the Conclusion question. To practice more Identify the Conclusion questions, have a look at the LSAT Questions by Type page.

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