Past LSAT Explained/PrepTest 47

The experimental section appeared in Section 2. Ratings of this administration placed its difficulty on par with other recent exams.

Section I Logical Reasoning

Question 01

IDENTIFY

This is a Flaw question.

• police patrol

READ

This is an LSAT's perennial favorite. This is a typical causation problem. A causes B not B causes A. Having many crimes causes the number of the police to rise. Maybe the police reinforcement has occurred only recently to have any effect on crime.

ANALYZE

This is the first question and a repeat from previous LSAT tests. You need to be able to do this around half a minute.

CHOOSE

(A) Incorrect. No emotional appeal here. If there was, the passage will look like this:

While it might be expected that those neigborhoods most heavily patrolled by police have the least crime, they in fact have the most. Just look at the brutal and heinous murder of children by ruthless Dr. El Saat. With his freightening look and psychopathic behaviors, his dark presence instills fear to all. Therefore, the presence of police does not decrease crime in a neighborhood.

(B) Incorrect. We are only concerned with a particular neighborhood in question. We don't have to worry about whether the same criminals commit something else outside our jurisdiction- none of our business period. For this choice to be correct, it has to be like given that answer (D) does not appear:

While it might be expected that those neigborhoods most heavily patrolled by police have few criminals, the statistical evidence overwhelmingly supports the claim that such neighborhoods have the most. This shows that the presence of police does not decrease the number of criminals in the neighborhood.

(C) Incorrect.

While it might be expected that those neigborhoods most heavily patrolled by police the least crime, the frontpage of LSAC Times recently reported a theft of the LSAT material by a group of pre-law students. Since stealing the LSAT is the most heinous crime of all, this shows that the presence of police does not decrease crime in the neighborhood.

(D) Correct.

(E) Incorrect. Wordy choice but wrong.

Question 02

IDENTIFY This is a Weaken question.

• endangered species

Premise: There have been increased international efforts to protect habitats of endangered species.

Premise: Rate that species goes extinct still rising.

Conclusion: Efforts to protect endangered species have been wasted.

Choose the answer that WEAKENS the argument:

A) It doesn't matter if they can preserve habitats any better now, their PAST efforts could still have been wasted.

B) CORRECT This shows that despite the extinction rate, their efforts were not entirely wasted.

C) Confirms the rate, does not impact argument.

D) The argument does not mention economic benefit.

E) Like A, it doesn't matter what they may do in the future. The argument is about what has been done in the past.

Question 03

• psychology
• academic department

Question 04

DISAGREE QUESTION

Aaron: Judge's statements were irresponsible.

Belinda: They were natural and truthful.

A) Aaron's opinion, Belinda doesn't address this.

B) CORRECT The explicitly mention opposing viewpoints.

C) Tricky, but Aaron never states that he condones the lawyer's actions, just that he disagrees with the judge's statement.

D) This is not addressed by either.

E) This is not a point of contention.

Question 05

Principle consists of two parts:

1. People believe only real things can evoke emotions.

2. Sometimes they have real emotions to things they know are not real.

The correct answer choice will have both parts.

A) CORRECT 1: Fred didn't expect to be scared. 2: He was actually scared, even though he knew it was fake.

B) No emotions discussed.

C) It wasn't real, but Raheem didn't know. Doesn't satisfy either part.

D) This may be representative of part 2, but definitely missing part 1.

E) No emotions discussed.

Question 06

• earthquake
• seismic shock

Question 07

insurance bicycle

Question 08

fortune telling psychic extrasensory perception (ESP)

Question 09

Premise: Historians have 2 criticisms

Premise: First, uncritical of status quo

Premise: Second, self-indulgent with own dreams.

Premise: Moviemakers gave audience what they desired.

Conclusion: Second can't be true.

This question asks us to find the assumption that would be sufficient to make the argument true.

A) Does not make the second criticism not true.

B) Only discusses the reasonableness of criticism 1

C) Only discusses criticism 1

D) Totally unrelated to criticism 2.

E) CORRECT This explains why criticism 2 is unfounded.

Question 10

• volunteerism

A) Editorial does not claim there is no causality, just that it "may not" be true.

B) No specific example is cited.

C) This claim was not in the argument.

D) CORRECT The author suggests another interpretation.

E) Author did not attempt to prove anything.

Question 11

• cash-flow

Question 12

• origin of life

Question 14

• dialect

Question 15

• brand

Question 18

• atmospheric science
• troposhere
• ultraviolet
• stratosphere

Question 19

• oral polio vaccine
• inactivated polio vacine

Question 20

• day care

Question 22

• pesticide

Question 23

• neuroscientist
• creativity

Question 24

• manual

Question 25

• demography

Question 26

• education

Section II Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension - 26 questions the humanities and science passages had the most difficult questions.

The first passage had described New York African-American ministers’ leadership role in a protest during the early 1960s.

The author of the second passage argued that China’s Cultural Revolution, which attempted to restrict expression that defied centrally defined values, paradoxically inspired divergent artistic movements.

The third passage contrasted approaches to family law and contended that mediation was superior to court proceedings.

The last passage discussed new evidence about the relationship between a pathogen and its host; it concluded that a pathogen that it is easily transmitted or can survive outside the body can kill its host and still reproduce successfully.

Section III Analytical Reasoning

Section IV Logical Reasoning

Question 26

the difficulty of this section as similar to games sections that have appeared on exams within the past year. They felt it was slightly harder than the June 2005 Games section, but quite manageable. The first game involved determining the order in which seven elements were placed. In the second game, you had to determine whether each of seven switches was in the On or Off position, according to a set of complex conditional rules. The third game involved figuring out which one or more of four music genres were sold at each of five stores. In the last game, six employees, three of whom were supervisors, had to be assigned to a Monday-to-Friday work schedule. Two people worked each day, and at least one had to be a supervisor. Test takers rated the first and fourth games as easier and the second and third games as harder.

• "Court-Connected Family Mediation Programs in Canada." May by Alberta Law Reform Institute.
• Paul W. Ewald, "The Evolution of Virulence." Copyright May 1993 by Scientific American, Inc.
• Clarence Taylor, The Black Churches of Brooklyn. Copyright 1994 by Columbia University Press.
• Li Xianting, "Major Trends in the Development of Contemporary Chinese Art." tr. Valerie C. Doran. Copyright 1993 by Hanart T Z Gallery.