LSAT 150 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q3

LR Question 3 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Durham: The mayor will agree to a tax increase because…

QUESTION TYPE: Point at Issue

ARGUMENTS: Durham says the mayor will agree to the tax increase. It’s a necessary condition for getting council to agree to repair the roads, and repairing the roads is the mayor’s main priority.

Espinoza says the mayor won’t increase taxes – this is even more important to her than repairing roads. Therefore, the mayor will not get her road repair proposal approved.

ANALYSIS: Both Durham and Espinoza agree on an implied conditional statement:

Road repair proposal approved ➞ tax increase

Tax increase ➞ road repair proposal approved

This question is an agreement question. So, this conditional statement is the correct answer.

Note that LSAC is adding more agreement questions to newer LSATs. I took forever to answer this, because I thought it was the more traditional disagreement question.

___________

1. Durham says yes, Espinosa says no. So they disagree on this. We’re looking for agreement.
2. CORRECT. Both authors agree with this. Durham says it directly, and Espinoza implies they agree with this. (Espinoza says “No taxes therefore no road repair”. This implies she agrees with Durham’s “Road repair ➞ taxes” conditional statement.)
3. Durham agrees with this. Espinoza says that not raising taxes is a higher priority.
4. Durham seems to imply they think the mayor will get their road repair proposal passed. Espinoza thinks the proposal won’t pass.
5. Espinoza agrees with this. Durham disagrees: they think the mayor will agree to a tax increase in order to pass the road proposal.

Recap: The question begins with “Durham: The mayor will agree to a tax increase because”. It is a Point at Issue question. Learn how to master LSAT Point at Issue questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.