LSAT 154 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q7

LR Question 7 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Mark: Advances in technology have caused the decline…

QUESTION TYPE: Point at Issue

ARGUMENTS: Mark says that tech advances have made print newspapers obsolete. News happens quickly and newspapers can’t keep up.

Fatuma instead says that it is the format of newspapers which is the problem. The articles are pointlessly long due to newspaper conventions. Internet news articles are short.

ANALYSIS: Mark and Fatuma disagree about why newspapers are in decline. Mark thinks it is technology, Fatuma thinks it is due to the format of their articles.

Remember, for the answer to be correct, one person has to say yes, and the other must say no. You can’t just assume someone disagrees about something if they don’t mention it. Three of the answers mention things Mark didn’t talk about.

___________

1. CORRECT. Mark agrees. Fatuma says “it is not the fault of technology that newspapers are losing”. Fatuma instead thinks it is because newspaper articles are needlessly long compared to internet articles.
2. Mark doesn’t mention length, so we don’t know his opinion. He might well agree that newspaper articles should be shorter (and yet disagree that this is the cause of the decline).
3. Same as B. Mark has no opinion, so we don’t know if he disagrees.
4. Same as B and C. Mark has no opinion on this! Fatuma does agree with this answer, but we need disagreement for the answer to be right.
   Mark does say that print newspapers can’t keep up with the internet’s instant articles. But that isn’t a convention: that’s just physical reality. A convention is something you can change.
5. Mark agrees. Fatuma doesn’t address this point, so we don’t know her opinion. Fatuma basically ignores Mark’s entire argument.

Recap: The question begins with “Mark: Advances in technology have caused the decline”. It is a Point at Issue question. Learn how to master LSAT Point at Issue questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.