LSAT 88, Logical Reasoning II, Q23, LSATHacks

LR Question 23 Explanation, by LSATHacks

QUESTION TEXT: Safety expert: Conversing on a cell phone while driving is…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: Talking on a cell phone when driving is more dangerous that talking to a passenger in the vehicle.

REASONING: The person on the other end of the call can’t assess the driving situation. A passenger would stay quiet or give warnings during dangerous situations.

ANALYSIS: So talking to someone on the phone while driving is dangerous since they can’t see what’s going on, and passengers go quiet during dangerous situations. But the stimulus also says that passengers gives helpful warnings. Thus, we need to assume that a passenger saying helpful things isn’t dangerous.

___________

1. CORRECT. We can infer from the stimulus that a passenger giving helpful warnings isn’t dangerous.
2. We’re not comparing a driver talking to a passenger versus not talking at all. All we know from the stimulus is that it’s more likely to have an accident when conversing on the phone versus with a passenger.
3. We don’t care about what what people believe.
4. This goes against our stimulus. The expert says that it’s better to be talking to a passenger in a difficult situation. But if a passenger’s warnings are “as likely” to distract the driver, then that goes counter to our conclusion.
5. The stimulus doesn’t give us this comparison. We only know that talking on the phone is riskier than conversing with a helpful/quiet passenger. We don’t know how this compares with an unhelpful passenger.

Recap: The question begins with “Safety expert: Conversing on a cell phone while driving is”. It is a Necessary Assumption question. Learn how to master LSAT Necessary questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.

Hi, I'm Graeme Blake

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