#9- The Jacksons regularly receive wrong-number calls for

[German.Steel]

This one confused me because I didn't see the "Although..." clause as part of the author's conclusion. As such, I thought we only needed a principle that justified the "It would be laudable..." part. Has there ever been another LR question in LSAT history where a clause starting with "Although..." was considered (by the test writers) to be part of the conclusion? Not that I can ever recall, and that's what seriously threw me off on this one - if we're just trying to justify the "It would be laudable..." part, then you evaluate the answer choices completely differently than if you're looking for an answer that has to justify the "Although..." clause as well. Hmmm #Perplexed

[Robert Carroll]

German.Steel,

"Although" is merely a contrast word - nothing more, nothing less. The question then arises - what's being contrasted? The conclusion essentially says "it's ok to do a little, but praiseworthy to go the extra mile". Even my paraphrase there includes the contrast word "but". The entire sentence is the conclusion. Both parts are intended to be things the author thinks he or she proved, and neither part is proven particularly well (hence, the Strengthen question!).

For the record, it's not clear to me that regarding the second part of the last sentence as the conclusion changes the evaluation of any answer choice. No other answer choice helps even the second half of the last sentence.

Robert Carroll

[German.Steel]

That's fair. I would draw a distinction between the way "although" and "but" are typically used on the LSAT though - it's quite frequent for "but" to immediately swivel into the author's conclusion. For example, the classic argument structure of "some people think ____, BUT they're wrong...and here's why." I can't think of an analogous case where "although" is introducing a conclusion...it just don't function that way, typically, from what I've seen.

That said: you're totally right that, ultimately, (A) is the only answer that fully does the job in support of the "second part" of the conclusion, so I was able to select it without losing too much sweat...but this question definitely would have been less of a time-burner for me if it was more clear that "although" was part of the author's conclusion. Oh well. Thank you!!

German.Steel,

"Although" is merely a contrast word - nothing more, nothing less. The question then arises - what's being contrasted? The conclusion essentially says "it's ok to do a little, but praiseworthy to go the extra mile". Even my paraphrase there includes the contrast word "but". The entire sentence is the conclusion. Both parts are intended to be things the author thinks he or she proved, and neither part is proven particularly well (hence, the Strengthen question!).

For the record, it's not clear to me that regarding the second part of the last sentence as the conclusion changes the evaluation of any answer choice. No other answer choice helps even the second half of the last sentence.

Robert Carroll