LSAT Prep Test 81 - Logical Reasoning 2 – Questions + Answers

Joe: All vampire stories are based on an absurd set of premises. Since, according to such stories, every victim of a vampire becomes a vampire, and vampires have existed since ancient times and are immortal, vampires would by now have almost completely eliminated their prey. Maria: In most of the vampire stories I am familiar with, vampires turn only a few of their victims into vampires. The rest are permanently dead. Joe and Maria disagree over the truth of which one of the following?

A company decided to scan all of its salespersons’ important work that existed only in paper form into a central computer database that could be easily accessed using portable computers, thereby saving salespersons the effort of lugging their paper files all over the country. The project was a dismal failure, however; salespersons rarely accessed the database and continued to rely on many paper files, which they had refused to turn over to the staff responsible for creating the database. Which one of the following, if true, most helps to account for the failure described above?

Politician: The legal right to free speech does not protect all speech. For example, it is illegal to shout “Fire!” in a crowded mall if the only intent is to play a practical joke; the government may ban publication of information about military operations and the identity of undercover agents; and extortion threats and conspiratorial agreements are also criminal acts. The criminalization of these forms of speech is justified, since, although they are very different from each other, they are all likely to lead directly to serious harm. In the statements above, the politician argues that

Art critic: Nowadays, museum visitors seldom pause to look at a work of art for even a full minute. They look, perhaps take a snapshot, and move on. This tells us something about how our relationship to art has changed over time. People have become less willing to engage with works of art than they once were. The art critic’s argument depends on the assumption that

Heavy tapestry fabrics are appropriate only for use in applications that will not need to be laundered frequently. These applications do not include any types of clothing—such as skirts or even jackets—but instead include swags and balloon valances, which are types of window treatments. Which one of the following statements is most supported by the information above?

The construction of new apartments in Brewsterville increased the supply of available housing there. Ordinarily, increasing the supply of available housing leads to lower rents for existing apartments. But in Brewsterville, rents for existing apartments rose. Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the discrepancy described above?

Politicians often advocate increased overall economic productivity while ignoring its drawbacks. For example, attempting to increase the productivity of a corporation means attempting to increase its profitability, which typically leads to a reduction in the number of workers employed by that corporation. Thus, attempting to increase productivity in the economy as a whole may benefit business owners, but will increase the number of unemployed workers. The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

A good movie reviewer should be able to give favorable reviews of movies that are not to his or her taste. Because movie reviewers have seen so many movies, their tastes are very different from and usually better informed than those of most moviegoers. Yet the function of movie reviewers, as opposed to film critics, is to help people determine which movies they might enjoy seeing, not to help them better appreciate movies. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the overall conclusion drawn in the argument?

The brain area that enables one to distinguish the different sounds made by a piano tends to be larger in a highly skilled musician than in someone who has rarely, if ever, played a musical instrument. This shows that practicing on, and playing, a musical instrument actually alters brain structure. Which one of the following most accurately describes a flaw in the argument?

Researcher: Overhearing only one side of a cell-phone conversation diverts listeners’ attention from whatever they are doing. Hearing only part of a conversation leaves listeners constantly trying to guess what the unheard talker has just said. Listeners’ attention is also diverted because cell-phone talkers speak abnormally loudly. The researcher’s statements, if true, most strongly support which one of the following?

A new treatment for muscle pain that looked very promising was tested in three separate studies. Although the results were positive, it turned out that all three studies had critical methodological flaws. So the treatment is probably not actually effective. The flawed nature of the argument above can most effectively be demonstrated by noting that, by parallel reasoning, we could conclude that

If future improvements to computer simulations of automobile crashes enable computers to provide as much reliable information about the effectiveness of automobile safety features as is provided by actual test crashes, then manufacturers will use far fewer actual test crashes. For the costs of designing and running computer simulations are much lower than those of actual test crashes. Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports the argument?

Legislator: My colleague says we should reject this act because it would deter investment. But because in the past she voted for legislation that inhibited investment, this surely is not the real reason she opposes the act. Since she has not revealed her real reason, it must not be very persuasive. So we should vote to approve the act. The reasoning in the legislator’s argument is most vulnerable to the criticism that the argument

A new computer system will not significantly increase an organization’s efficiency unless the computer system requires the organization’s employees to adopt new, more productive ways of working. The Ministry of Transportation is having a new computer system custom built to fit the ministry’s existing ways of working, so . Which one of the following most logically completes the argument?

Columnist: Many car manufacturers trumpet their cars’ fuel economy under normal driving conditions. For all three of the cars I have owned, I have been unable to get even close to the fuel economy that manufacturers advertise for cars of those makes. So manufacturers probably inflate those numbers. The reasoning in the columnist’s argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

Tenants who do not have to pay their own electricity bills do not have a financial incentive to conserve electricity. Thus, if more landlords install individual electricity meters on tenant dwellings so that tenants can be billed for their own use, energy will be conserved as a result. Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?

The position that punishment should be proportional to how serious the offense is but that repeat offenders should receive harsher punishments than first-time offenders is unsustainable. It implies that considerations as remote as what an offender did years ago are relevant to the seriousness of an offense. If such remote considerations were relevant, almost every other consideration would be too. But this would make determining the seriousness of an offense so difficult that it would be impossible to apply the proportionality principle. The statement that considerations as remote as what an offender did years ago are relevant to the seriousness of an offense plays which one of the following roles in the argument?

Blogger: Traditionally, newspapers have taken objectivity to be an essential of good journalism. However, today’s newer media are more inclined to try to create a stir with openly partisan reporting. This contrast in journalistic standards is best understood in terms of differing business strategies. The newer media outlets need to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace. The standard of objectivity developed primarily among newspapers with no serious rivals, so the most important objective was to avoid offending potential readers. Which one of the following is an assumption required by the blogger’s argument?

Any government practice that might facilitate the abuse of power should not be undertaken except in cases in which there is a compelling reason to do so. The keeping of government secrets is one such practice. Though government officials are sometimes justified in keeping secrets, too often they keep secrets for insubstantial reasons, and in so doing they wind up enabling abuses of power. When government officials conceal from the public the very fact that they are keeping a secret, this practice opens up even greater opportunity for abuse. Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the statements above?

According to a theory embraced by some contemporary musicians, music is simply a series of sounds, bereft of meaning. But these musicians, because they understand that their theory is radically nonconformist, encourage audience acceptance by prefacing their performances with explanations of their intentions. Thus, even their own music fails to conform to their theory. Which one of the following, if assumed, enables the argument’s conclusion to be properly drawn?

Evolution does not always optimize survival of an organism. Male moose evolved giant antlers as a way of fighting other males for mates, giving those with the largest antlers an evolutionary advantage. But those antlers also make it harder to escape predators, since they can easily get tangled in trees. All male moose would be better off with antlers half the current size: they would all be less vulnerable to predators, and those with the largest antlers would maintain their relative advantage. Which one of the following is a technique of reasoning used in the argument?

Biologist: When bacteria of a particular species are placed in a test tube that has different areas lit with different colors of light, the bacteria move only into the areas lit with a particular shade of red. The bacteria contain chlorophyll, a chemical that allows them to produce energy more effectively from this color of light than from any other. This suggests that the bacteria detect this color of light by monitoring how much energy their chlorophyll is producing. Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the biologist’s argument?

If a piece of legislation is the result of negotiation and compromise between competing interest groups, it will not satisfy any of those groups. So, we can gee that the recently enacted trade agreement represents a series of compromises among the various interest groups that are concerned with it, because all of those groups are clearly unhappy with it. Which one of the following most accurately describes a logical flaw in the argument?

After a nuclear power plant accident, researchers found radioactive isotopes of iodine, tellurium, and cesium— but no heavy isotopes—in the atmosphere downwind. This material came either from spent fuel rods or from the plant’s core. Spent fuel rods never contain significant quantities of tellurium isotopes. Radioactive material ejected into the atmosphere directly from the core would include heavy isotopes. After the accident, steam, which may have been in contact with the core, was released from the plant. The core contains iodine, tellurium, and cesium isotopes, which are easily dissolved by steam. Of the following statements, which one is most strongly supported by the information above?

If ecology and the physical sciences were evaluated by the same criteria, ecology would fail to be a successful science because it cannot be captured by a set of simple laws. But ecology is a successful science, although of a different sort from the physical sciences. Therefore, it clearly is not being evaluated by means of the criteria used to evaluate the physical sciences. Which one of the following arguments is most similar in its reasoning to the argument above?