#14 - Concept Reference, Parallel

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

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

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

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

[clbrogesr]

Hi! Can someone explain why B is correct for #14?

I read Passage A as saying that markets quickly and accurately reflect the realities of a situation while Passage B says that markets are slow to react and, ultimately, reflect the perception of a situation, not the reality of a situation. Markets, Passage B tells us, reflect what the majority believe about a situation.

I chose E - my thought being that a digital camera quickly and accurately processes a situation while a film camera is slower, much like the way that A and B frame the market's processing of information. I can see how answer E is incorrect - the question of speed is not as clearly emphasized in Passage B. But I cannot figure out why answer B is correct.

A thermostat sets the temperature while a thermometer measures it. But Passage A is not saying that markets change information about a stock, only that they quickly and accurately reflect changes. To quote the passage, "the market learns." It isn't changing the underlying information, just reflecting faster and more accurately than Passage B claims. So how is the thermostat - thermometer relationship reflective of the two passages?

[Adam Tyson]

I can't say I love the analogy in this answer, clbrogesr, but I felt it was the best answer because, as I saw it, a thermostat is "active" (influencing the temperature) while a thermometer is "passive" (merely measuring the temp). In Passage A, the knowledge of participants influences the market in an active way, controlling what the market does, while in Passage B the author sees the market as passively reflecting that knowledge, not being controlled by it as much as simply measuring it at any given moment.

The other answer choices were about tools that accomplish similar things in different ways, some of which may be faster or slower, or just different in some other key respect, but as you said, speed was not really the issue in the passages. I think it's the active vs. passive, influence vs. measure, that makes B the best answer.

[rragepack]

Shouldn't it be either (active) knowledge influences the market and (passive) knowledge reflects the market, or (active) market influences their knowledge and (passive) market reflects their knowledge. Are we allowed to pick one each from knowledge as the main subject or market as the main subject?

[rragepack]

Shouldn't it be either (active) knowledge influences the market and (passive) knowledge reflects the market, or (active) market influences their knowledge and (passive) market reflects their knowledge. Are we allowed to pick one each from knowledge as the main subject or market as the main subject?

haha nvm I get it now

[cacao825]

This question was very difficult for me because I didn't know what a thermostat was lol.... I chose the right answer during the test because I eliminated all the other answers and was left with this... and thought that since a thermometer simply shows you the temperature a thermostat would be something that affects the temperature as in the passage. But why on earth have I not heard of a thermostat before...What if there are people who have never lived in a house with a thermostat and never heard of the word and would have no idea what its functions are? I know LSAT knows that people from non-Western cultures also take the test and try to make it so that it isn't too biased towards Western cultures... But I guess the test makers assumed that everyone would know what a thermostat is... unlike me haha... just wanted to share my experience with people and wondered if anyone else had the same issue as me. (maybe I'm just out of the ordinary)

[Robert Carroll]

cacao825,

I recommend that if such terms are on the LSAT and not defined, you try to add them to your vocabulary! But your method worked - you knew the other answers weren't right, so you picked an answer that had an unfamiliar word - unfamiliar, so you didn't know it was wrong. If you can decisively eliminate four answers, you know the remaining one has to be right!

Robert Carroll

[nlitovsky]

This question was very difficult for me because I didn't know what a thermostat was lol.... I chose the right answer during the test because I eliminated all the other answers and was left with this... and thought that since a thermometer simply shows you the temperature a thermostat would be something that affects the temperature as in the passage. But why on earth have I not heard of a thermostat before...What if there are people who have never lived in a house with a thermostat and never heard of the word and would have no idea what its functions are? I know LSAT knows that people from non-Western cultures also take the test and try to make it so that it isn't too biased towards Western cultures... But I guess the test makers assumed that everyone would know what a thermostat is... unlike me haha... just wanted to share my experience with people and wondered if anyone else had the same issue as me. (maybe I'm just out of the ordinary)

the same thing happened to me lol... i thought that both a thermostat and a thermometer just measure temperature. i had no idea that thermostats can actually change temperatures

[Jude.m.stone@gmail.com]

Hi, I don't understand how B is correct. My reading of the texts is that A says the market reflects people's knowledge efficiently and well -- and I can see how that could be abstracted into people's knowledge "controlling" the temperature like a thermostat, but I don't see how the market is doing the controlling. In A, people's insight influences what the market reflects, so how does that make the market the thermostat? Because A isn't saying that the market is the thing influencing people's info and opinions, but rather it reflects and distills their info so well that it course-corrects even when not everyone has the same inside knowledge. But if the market was the thermostat, wouldn't that mean that the market controlled people's info and views of it?

Conversely, I see how the market could be considered a thermometer in B because the passage says the market reflects public opinion like a thermostat does (albeit it reflects info less reliably than author A argues). I guess I just don't see how A doesn't also qualify as a thermometer because it reacts to the inside info and individual knowledge that people apply to it -- although it would be a much higher-grade thermometer than what's described in passage B.

I confidently chose D because my takeaway from the passages was that A says the market reflects the truth -- even when only a few people have the correct/inside knowledge, the market quickly and accurately disperses that knowledge -- whereas B says the market only reflects public opinion, which could be right or wrong. With that framing in mind, the analogy of a news broadcast (which only reports facts/truth, like A seems to posit) versus a magazine (which is often more of an opinion-based form of reading, like B describes the market) made sense to me.

Can you please help me understand where I missed the clues I should have picked up on? Thank you!

[landphil]

Hi, I don't understand how B is correct. My reading of the texts is that A says the market reflects people's knowledge efficiently and well -- and I can see how that could be abstracted into people's knowledge "controlling" the temperature like a thermostat, but I don't see how the market is doing the controlling. In A, people's insight influences what the market reflects, so how does that make the market the thermostat? Because A isn't saying that the market is the thing influencing people's info and opinions, but rather it reflects and distills their info so well that it course-corrects even when not everyone has the same inside knowledge. But if the market was the thermostat, wouldn't that mean that the market controlled people's info and views of it?

Conversely, I see how the market could be considered a thermometer in B because the passage says the market reflects public opinion like a thermostat does (albeit it reflects info less reliably than author A argues). I guess I just don't see how A doesn't also qualify as a thermometer because it reacts to the inside info and individual knowledge that people apply to it -- although it would be a much higher-grade thermometer than what's described in passage B.

I confidently chose D because my takeaway from the passages was that A says the market reflects the truth -- even when only a few people have the correct/inside knowledge, the market quickly and accurately disperses that knowledge -- whereas B says the market only reflects public opinion, which could be right or wrong. With that framing in mind, the analogy of a news broadcast (which only reports facts/truth, like A seems to posit) versus a magazine (which is often more of an opinion-based form of reading, like B describes the market) made sense to me.

Can you please help me understand where I missed the clues I should have picked up on? Thank you!

I had the EXACT same line of thinking. I would also like someone to explain what Jude is asking.