LSAT-Section-1-Logical-Reasoning Section One : Logical Reasoning - Practice Questions

Question 187

Tina: For centuries oceans and human eccentricity have been linked in the literary and artistic imagination. Such linkage is probably due to the European Renaissance practice of using ships as asylums for the socially undesirable.

Sergio: No. Oceans have always been viewed as mysterious and unpredictable – qualities that people have invariably associated with eccentricity.

Tina's and Sergio's statements lend the most support to the claim that they disagree about which one of the following statements?

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Eccentric humans were considered socially undesirable during the European Renaissance.
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Oceans have always been viewed as mysterious and unpredictable.
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The linkage between oceans and eccentricity explains the European Renaissance custom of using ships as asylums.
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People have never attributed the same qualities to oceans and eccentrics.
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The linkage between oceans and eccentricity predates the European Renaissance.

Reference / correct answer:

The linkage between oceans and eccentricity predates the European Renaissance.

What’s the point at issue between Tina and Sergio? Tina senses a literary and artistic link between oceans and eccentricity, and proposes that the Renaissance-era “Ship of Fools” practice is probably the cause. Nope, says Sergio: From time immemorial, the oceans have been perceived as mysterious and unpredictable, and that explains their association with eccentricity. So both accept the connection between oceans and eccentricity, but Tina sees the cause of the link in how a particular culture at a particular timeused the ocean, while to Sergio it’s the nature of the ocean itself that’s responsible. Note the extreme words that Sergio employs: “always” and “invariably.” These words leave little doubt that his time frame for the phenomenon stretches far beyond Tina’s explanation, and option [The linkage between oceans and…] captures the dispute perfectly: Tina believes the linkage dates from the European Renaissance (that’s the point in time at which she places its cause), while Sergio believes it goes back much further than that.

Question 188

In a recent study, a group of subjects had their normal daily caloric intake increased by 25 percent. This increase was entirely in the form of alcohol. Another group of similar subjects had alcohol replace nonalcoholic sources of 25 percent of their normal daily caloric intake. All subjects gained body fat over the course of the study, and the amount of body fat gained was the same for both groups.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

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Alcohol is metabolized more quickly by the body than are other foods or drinks.
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In the general population, alcohol is the primary cause of gains in body fat.
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An increased amount of body fat does not necessarily imply a weight gain.
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Body fat gain is not dependent solely on the number of calories one consumes.
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The proportion of calories from alcohol in a diet is more significant for body fat gain than are the total calories from alcohol.

Question 189

When investigators discovered that the director of a local charity had repeatedly overstated the number of people his charity had helped, the director accepted responsibility for the deception. However, the investigators claimed that journalists were as much to blame as the director was for inflating the charity's reputation, since they had naively accepted what the director told them, and simply reported as fact the numbers he gave them.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the investigators' claim?

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Anyone who works for a charitable organization is obliged to be completely honest about the activities of that organization.
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Anyone who knowingly aids a liar by trying to conceal the truth from others is also a liar.
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Anyone who presents as factual a story that turns out to be untrue without first attempting to verify that story is no less responsible for the consequences of that story than anyone else is.
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Anyone who lies in order to advance his or her own career is more deserving of blame than someone who lies in order to promote a good cause.
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Anyone who accepts responsibility for a wrongful act that he or she committed is less deserving of blame than someone who tries to conceal his or her own wrongdoing.

Reference / correct answer:

Anyone who presents as factual a story that turns out to be untrue without first attempting to verify that story is no less responsible for the consequences of that story than anyone else is.

The director of the charity repeatedly lied about the number of people helped by the charity, but when confronted by the investigators, accepted responsibility for the deception. But the investigators oddly blame the journalists as much as the director for misrepresenting the charity’s beneficence, because they unquestioningly printed the numbers they were told.

The journalists didn’t fabricate the story – they merely printed the numbers they were given. It seems that the investigators believe that printing erroneous information without checking it is on a par with making up that info in the first place. The principle in option [Anyone who presents as factual a story that…] embodies that notion, and thus supports the investigators’ claim. The description in the first part of the choice clearly applies to the journalists; the phrase “no less responsible” in the middle matches up perfectly with “as much to blame as...”; and “than anyone else” clearly includes the director. Option [Anyone who presents as factual a story that…] hits on all cylinders, while the other choices stray from or distort the scope of the situation.

LSAT-Section-1-Logical-Reasoning – Section One : Logical Reasoning