LSAT 149 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q12

LR Question 12 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: In a scene in an ancient Greek play, Knights, the character…

QUESTION TYPE: Must be False

FACTS:

1. In the ancient Greek play Knights, Demosthenes looked at a tablet with an oracle’s prophecy.
2. He kept saying out loud he was amazed at the prophecy. [Hence, he could not have been reading the tablet out loud]
3. When asked, Demosthenes explained what the prophecy said.

ANALYSIS: This is a strange question. It’s really simple, but the question is worded so strangely that I actually found it confusing.

You have to think carefully about the question stem. It’s asking what must be false. In other words, suppose someone pointed to an answer and said “this answer is always true!”.

For the right answer, you will be able to use the stimulus and say “no, based on this stimulus, that answer is not always true”. If you get that framing right, you’ll kick yourself for how easy the answer is. (But, the framing is hard. I myself was quite confused by this question, then laughed once I figured it out).

What’s the simple answer? We know that Demosthenes read the tablet to himself, exclaiming his amazement. If you are exclaiming amazement while reading, you must be reading in your head. He only afterwards read the tablet out loud.

___________

1. We don’t know. We only have the example of one character, who did know how to read. So Demosthenes example can’t prove the statement false: he conforms to this answer. It’s possible most people were illiterate in ancient times.
2. This doesn’t follow. Historical figures looked at prophecies. There really was an oracle that existed in ancient Greece. So there could have been a real Demosthenes.
3. Who knows. It’s true that Demosthenes didn’t read anything aloud. But that doesn’t let us falsify this whole answer: it’s possible that in other plays people did read things aloud. A single instance cannot disprove a general statement about what commonly happens. By contrast, the right answer is about what always happens, so a single instance can disprove it.
4. CORRECT. The stimulus falsifies this answer. Demosthenes did read silently to himself, so this answer isn’t always true.
    
   We know he read silently because as he looked at it, he kept exclaiming surprise at what the prophecy said. And then his companion asked him what he said.
    
   If Demosthenes had read the tablet aloud to himself, his companion wouldn’t have had to ask. And Demosthenes can’t have been reading aloud in a quiet voice, because he was using his voice the whole time to exclaim about the prophecy.
5. We can’t say. It’s true that Demosthenes has a tablet. But that doesn’t mean tablets are common. Macbeth is a play that had witches, but that doesn’t mean witches were common in Scotland.

Recap: The question begins with “In a scene in an ancient Greek play, Knights, the character”. It is a Must be False question. Learn more about LSAT MBF questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.