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

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Showing 256–258 of 430 questions

Question 256

It is impossible to do science without measuring. It is impossible to measure without having first selected units of measurement. Hence, science is arbitrary, since the selection of a unit of measurement – kilometer, mile, fathom, etc. – is always arbitrary.

The pattern of reasoning in which one of the following is most similar to that in the argument above

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    Long hours of practice are necessary for developing musical skill. One must develop one's musical skill in order to perform difficult music. But long hours of practice are tedious. So performing difficult music is tedious.
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    You have to advertise to run an expanding business, but advertising is expensive. Hence, it is expensive to run a business.
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    It is permissible to sit on the park benches. To sit on the park benches one must walk to them. One way to walk to them is by walking on the grass. So it is permissible to walk on the grass.
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    It is impossible to be a manager without evaluating people. The process of evaluation is necessarily subjective. Thus, people resent managers because they resent being evaluated subjectively.
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    Some farming on the plains requires irrigation. This irrigation now uses water pumped from aquifers. But aquifers have limited capacity and continued pumping will eventually exhaust them. Thus, a new source of water will have to be found in order for such farming to continue indefinitely.
Question 257

Professor Beckstein: American Sign Language is the native language of many North Americans. Therefore, it is not a foreign language, and for that reason alone, no student should be permitted to satisfy the university's foreign language requirement by learning it.

Professor Sedley: According to your argument, students should not be allowed to satisfy the university's foreign language requirement by learning French or Spanish either, since they too are the native languages of many North Americans. Yet many students currently satisfy the requirement by studying French or Spanish, and it would be ridiculous to begin prohibiting them from doing so.

Their statements commit Professors Beckstein and Sedley to disagreeing about which one of the following?

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    whether American Sign Language is the native language of a significant number of North Americans
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    whether any North American whose native language is not English should be allowed to fulfill the university's foreign language requirement by studying his or her own native language
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    whether the university ought to retain a foreign language requirement
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    whether any other universities in North America permit their students to fulfill a foreign language requirement by learning American Sign Language
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    whether the fact that a language is the native language of many North Americans justifies prohibiting its use to fulfill the university's foreign language requirement
Question 258

Professor Beckstein: American Sign Language is the native language of many North Americans. Therefore, it is not a foreign language, and for that reason alone, no student should be permitted to satisfy the university's foreign language requirement by learning it.

Professor Sedley: According to your argument, students should not be allowed to satisfy the university's foreign language requirement by learning French or Spanish either, since they too are the native languages of many North Americans. Yet many students currently satisfy the requirement by studying French or Spanish, and it would be ridiculous to begin prohibiting them from doing so.

Professor Sedley uses which one of the following strategies of argumentation in responding to Professor Beckstein's argument?

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    attempting to demonstrate that the reasoning used to reach a certain conclusion leads to another conclusion that is undesirable
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    trying to show that a certain conclusion contradicts some of the evidence used to support it
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    questioning an opponent's authority to address the issue under discussion
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    offering an alternative explanation of the facts used to arrive at a specific conclusion
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    agreeing with the conclusion of a particular argument while rejecting the evidence used to support the conclusion