#5 - Large quantities of lead dust can be released during

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Weaken. The correct answer choice is (C)

This is another example of a fairly long stimulus which describes a rather basic argument: Even though lead removal should be done professionally, many people choose to do it themselves to save money. Thus, Homeowners Journal should advise on how to minimize risks.

Since a weaken question follows this stimulus, we should probably seek an answer choice which shows why the author's conclusion might not be advisable.

Answer choice (A): The relevant question here is whether or not the journal should advise on lead removal, so this really only involves those who know that there is lead to be removed. Thus, this answer choice does not affect the author's argument.

Answer choice (B): This answer choice involves those who would undertake such a product with or without advise from the Homeowners Journal, so this choice has no effect on the strength of the argumentation in the stimulus.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice, as it provides a detrimental effect of the author's proposal. If publication of such advice actually increases the likelihood that people will do such dangerous jobs themselves, this such publication would not be advisable.

Answer choice (D): The lack of availability of professionals might make do-it-yourselfers more common, but this tells us nothing about the wisdom of providing advise in Homeowners Journal.

Answer choice (E): This answer choice is irrelevant, because the author specifically points out that in this context it is generally cheaper to do it yourself.

[elewis10]

Just want to make sure I understand this. Is answer choice C saying that the conclusion (that the journal should publish a do-it-yourself article) would cause a higher risk of lead poisoning because it would lead more people to attempt to do something that should be left to professionals?

C made the most sense to me, but I picked B. B seemed like an alternate cause...

Thanks a lot.

[Jamena Pirone]

Hi elewis,

You're essentially correct about Answer Choice C. It says that the Journal's publishing a do-it-yourself article could lead to more people engaging in a potentially risky endeavor.

However, I would caution you to be careful with causality. You should be looking for alternate causes only when the argument's conclusion itself clearly relies on causal reasoning. Here, the argument concludes that the Journal should publish a DIY article so that people who are going to do their own renovations can minimize their risk. That isn't a causal statement, so trying to find an alternate cause could lead you astray.

Hope that helps!

[elewis10]

That is really helpful. Thanks so much, Jamena!

[kwcflynn]

Could this question exemplify how helpful the premise could be? The second sentence further mentions, "renovations should be done only... by contractors who are experienced in removing all traces of lead... and who have the equipment to protect themselves from lead dust." Due to the fact that this is the premise, we should accept this as an absolute rule?

If so, (C) would be the credited response because it completely defies what the above-mentioned premise is proclaiming.

Please let me know if I am on the right track.

THANK YOU!

[Adam Tyson]

You absolutely are on the right track, kwcflynn! If the article will encourage more people to do what they should not do, that argues against publishing the article. Boom! We accept the premises as true, as you did. Well done!

[LSAT2020]

The stimulus gave me a hard time in terms of trying to figure out the author's conclusion. I thought the main conclusion was, "Even when warned, however, people won't pay..." I thought the last sentence of the stimulus was another premise. Also, I didn't pay close attention to the question stem. I didn't realize that he question stem was specially asking you to waken the recommendation about the Homeowner's Journal.

[Paul Marsh]

Hey LSAT2020! For Weaken questions like this, the first thing we want to do is identify the conclusion and the premises. The first chapter of the PowerScore Course Book contains a great list of "premise indicators" and "conclusion indicators". I'd highly recommend reviewing and even memorizing both of those lists. The word "therefore" is a textbook conclusion indicator; a sentence that starts with "therefore" is (for all intents and purposes) always going to be a conclusion.

Again, it's so critical to identify the conclusion immediately in a Weaken question. This is because our right answer is going to to cast doubt on the idea that the conclusion is in fact drawn correctly from the premises. We are essentially weakening the conclusion (more specifically - we're showing that the conclusion does not 100% logically follow from the premises).

Hope that helps!

[catherineshi99]

Hi,

I was in between A) and C) and ultimately chose A. I chose A because of the sentence "Even when warned, however, many people will not pay to have someone else do renovations they believe they could do less expensively themselves". Since it doesn't mention that the people in question necessarily have lead in their walls, my prephrase was along the lines of "people are doing renovations themselves because they know they don't have lead in their walls, not because it's less expensive" – kind of like an alternative cause. And A) fit that perfectly.

I dismissed C because even though less people would be hiring professionals, since the purpose of the article is to reduce risk of DIY lead poisoning, it could be possibly just as safe as hiring professionals, thus having no effect on the conclusion.

Could someone tell me why my prephrase was wrong or why my logic for dismissing C is wrong? Thank you!

[afulbright.2000@gmail.com]

I had mistaken E for the right answer because I thought that with Weaken being in the Third Family, the answer choices are accepted as true and the stimulus is allowed to be affected by those answer choices...

Therefore, with this question, I thought E made sense because proving that people do DIY's for a reason other than DIY's being cheaper would undermine the argument, via presenting an "alternate cause" behind why people were choosing DIY's...

Please let me know where I am confusing a concept/analyzing this question improperly!