#19 - Henry: Engines powered by electricity from batteries

[Erik Shum]

Hi Snowy,

Those were all red flags for me as well . Very good that you caught those differences

[dlehr99]

This question and answers (A) and (B) should be the given example of why every word matters on this test, for eternity. I missed it, but after reading through these comments it is so obvious. Thanks all.

[amys45]

I understand why all of the other answer choices are incorrect, but I still think there's a huge flaw in A.

Isn't it common knowledge that pollution in one area can easily affect pollution in other areas? When I read answer choice A originally I thought to myself, "Well, just because the power plants are a significant distance away from urban areas doesn't necessarily mean that they won't cause pollution in urban areas."

Is this inferring too much? I understand that the key to answering this question directly was honing in on Henry's argument about urban pollution, but I still don't think A is a relevant counter-argument.

[Adam Tyson]

Perhaps, snowy, although it seems pretty reasonable (to me, anyway) that air pollution is the primary issue with internal combustion engines. It's not like cars are dumping toxic waste into rivers, right? If answer B had said "more than offset" then I think we would looking at a good response, even though it only mentioned air pollution. I think the best way to eliminate answer B is that it doesn't help Henry to merely offset the air pollution, because he is arguing that electric cars will reduce pollution.

[HarryK]

Hi Powerscore Tutors,

I feel like another reason why (B) is wrong is the phrasing of it:
it says, "...would be offset by the reduction in air pollution emitted by electric vehicles".
The last part (reduction in air pollution emitted by electric vehicles) seems to mean that previously the air pollution emitted by electric vehicles was, say, level 10, but now the pollution from electric vehicles would only be, say, level 1.
But this is not what the stimulus says: it says that there will be a reduction in pollution when combustion engines vehicles (level 10 pollutant, say) get replaced with electric vehicles, not that the pollution emitted by (or the pollution from) electric vehicles itself would decrease (say, by some kind of technological advancement).
So, I believe (B) actually fails the Fact Test.

Please let me know whether I am correct on this line of thinking!

Thank you,
Harry

[crispycrispr]

Hi there, on the LSAT, are we supposed to take "offset" to mean balance out to zero? I was kind of confused by this answer choice because at first i thought it would weaken, but then "offset" was kind of vague to me because "offset" could also mean diminish.

[HarryK]

Hi PowerscoreTutors,

I'm still waiting for your answer to my question above! Thank you!

Best,
Harry

[Bob O'Halloran]

Hi HarryK,
Thank you for the question. You are correct that "offset" in this context means balance out to zero. What the test makers are doing here are making sure you see that if the net change is zero, that doesn't help Henry because he is stating that it should reduce urban pollution.
I hope this helps.
Bob

[HarryK]

Hi Bob,

Thank you for this reply. But your reply actually doesn't address my question; it addresses crispycrispr's question above. Could you take a look at my question above about the phrase 'air pollution emitted by electric vehicles' (NOT about the word 'offset')?

Thank you,
Harry

[sicm91]

Hi! I eliminated A because my understanding of the word "urban" is any city, not just a major city. Is that a fair interpretation to make or is that reading too deeply?

Signed,
I Overthink Every Aspect of this Test