#20 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (A).

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[Etsevdos]

Was between A / E: Need help understanding why e is wrong

Passage: Detract from public good ->Action should not be taken
CP: action permitted --> does not detract

A: right--> contribution : cp: no contribution --> wrong

E: morally wrong--> harm others : cp: benefit others --> right

What am I diagramming incorrect, if at all?

[nicholaspavic]

Hi Etsevdos,

I like the fact that you are working in the 90's RC. It's my personal opinion that you really get a great workout with this RC passage because you are being asked a more difficult type of question. Think of this as heavy lifting, increasing your strength so that you can easily do the weights on test day. So well done and keep it up.

But let's move on to your question. First let's address why (A) is correct. We are introduced to the concept of morality in the opening lines, the author speaks generally about that morality connecting it to "public good" in line 9. Throughout the rest of the passage that connection is reinforced. The last two sentences of the passage could be summarized (or combined) as

CEO moral not take action that detracts from public good

I agree that you diagrammed the first part of Answer Choice (A) correctly with:

right contribution to public good

The contrapositive of which looks like:

contribution to public good right

Note that it is not "wrong," it 's just "not right."

So Answer Choice (A) does a pretty good job of encapsulation of that logic that starts with the penultimate sentence.

But let's look at (E) because this is where you may have gotten so focused on your diagramming that you forgot what was stated in the passage. I agree that your initial diagramming of (E) looks good (great job with the "unless" statement by the way) but can you spot where you went wrong in the contrapositive? I am asking not because it's going to get you to the right answer necessarily but because you need to make sure you have the skill down on test day.

So what is wrong with (E)? It's addressing "others," that is to say other people. As an example of public good, the author discusses the paper mill hypothetical in lines 42-47. Reread that. Is any person being harmed in that example? Or is it just a forest and a lake? That's the problem with (E). You have connected "public good" to just "others" but public good means people, forests, lakes etc. That's why (E) is incorrect and a bit of a Shell Game answer.

Thanks for the great question and I hope this helped.

[askuwheteau@protonmail.com]

Got this one wrong and closely analyzed what went wrong. As an aside, I understood you to say that the '90s RC provides better practice material for the actual LSAT administration. Now this is not the same as saying that the more modern preptests (i.e., Preptest 70) are inferior or in someway less adequate for testing prep. Do I understand you correctly?

A: S (conditional diagram: Morally right>contribute to public good. See entire final paragraph of the stimulus which supports this conditional inference)

B: U (this conditional statement isn’t inferable from the final paragraph)

C: U

D: U

E: U (same reasons as answer choice B)

[Jeff Wren]

Hi askuwheteau,

I realize that you posted this question a while ago, so I'm not sure if this will still be helpful to you, but hopefully it will be helpful to you and/or others.

Your analysis looks good. As you mentioned, Answer A is directly supported by the last paragraph.

In my opinion the more recent Prep Tests are still great to study (I'd prioritize the PT 80s first, then the PT 70s), but some of the most challenging reading comp passages actually appear in certain earlier LSATs and can be great practice for the more challenging passages that have been showing up on recent tests.

If you're looking for some very challenging passages, here's a good list of some of the hardest.

https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/killer ... -all-time/

[askuwheteau@protonmail.com]

Thanks Jeff for providing your sound advice! Much appreciated.