LSAT 149 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q3

LR Question 3 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Enrique: The city’s transit authority does not have enough…

QUESTION TYPE: Point at Issue

ARGUMENTS: Enrique says the transit authority should deplete its funds and risk bankruptcy. The federal government will surely offer funding in that case.

Cynthia argues that the federal government might well let the authority go bankrupt. The authority can’t take that risk.

ANALYSIS: Cynthia is disagreeing with Enrique’s plan. So she thinks the transit authority should not keep operating as it is, with no changes. (i.e. Without cutting service or increasing fares).

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1. CORRECT. See the discussion above. If the transit authority did this, Cynthia thinks it would risk bankruptcy as the federal government probably wouldn’t bail out the agency.
2. Cynthia didn’t say what the feds should do. She only talked about what they would do. Her only argument was about what the transit authority itself should do.
3. Cynthia doesn’t mention either of these, so we can’t know her opinion.
4. Both people probably disagree with this. Enrique says the government hasn’t provided funding so far. And Cynthia says the government probably wouldn’t provide funding even in the event of bankruptcy. So she is unlikely to think it would provide funding when it is less urgent to do so.
    
   For an answer to be right, one person has to clearly say yes, and the other person has to clearly say no.
5. Both Enrique and Cynthia agree the authority doesn’t have funds for this. Cynthia thinks the authority would go bankrupt if it tried. Enrique only thinks they would avoid bankruptcy if the federal government bailed out the authority.

Recap: The question begins with “Enrique: The city’s transit authority does not have enough”. It is a Point at Issue question. Learn how to master LSAT Point at Issue questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.