LSAT 151 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q1

LR Question 1 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Joe: All vampire stories are based on an absurd set of…

QUESTION TYPE: Point at Issue

ARGUMENTS: Joe says vampire stories are absurd: vampires live forever, have existed for a long time, and turn their victims into vampires. Wouldn’t all humans be vampires by now?

Maria says that actually, in most vampire stories, the large bulk of vampire victims just die. Only a few turn into vampires.

ANALYSIS: Joe and Maria disagree on how many vampire victims turn into vampires (in vampire stories). Joe says all of them do, Maria says only a few do.

Remember, you need to pick an answer that each author has an opinion on. Many wrong answers only mention one person’s opinion.

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1. Maria doesn’t mention how long vampires lived.
2. Maria doesn’t mention when vampire stories say vampires began existing.
3. Neither person says vampire stories are incoherent. Joe says they are absurd, but that is a different claim. Something incoherent is several steps down from something merely absurd.
4. This is a highly specific claim. No sensible person would claim it is literally true. If only one vampire story showed a large vampire population, then this claim would be false.
    
   Would you bet your reputation on a claim like this? Would anyone? It’s a terrible bet. I’m sure there are hundreds of thousands of vampire stories, if not millions.
    
   LSAC writes authors to be sensible. So as a rule, you won’t find them agreeing with insane claims like this answer. To be the right answer, one of the author’s has to agree with it, and neither of them says anything close to this answer. 
5. CORRECT. Joe says yes, Maria says only a few victims do.