LSAT 103 – Section 3 – Question 09

LSAT 103 - Section 3 - Question 09

September 1998

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT103 S3 Q09
+LR
Necessary assumption +NA
Link Assumption +LinkA
A
4%
159
B
4%
161
C
88%
168
D
2%
163
E
2%
162
132
144
155
 +Medium 148.537 +SubsectionMedium

Scientific and technological discoveries have considerable effects on the development of any society. It follows that predictions of the future condition of societies in which scientific and technological discovery is particularly frequent are particularly untrustworthy.

Summary
The argument concludes that predictions of the future are particularly unreliable when they relate to societies with frequent scientific and technological discoveries. This is supported by the claim that scientific and technological discoveries have significant effects on how a society develops.

Notable Assumptions
The argument’s inference between discoveries impacting the future and the future being harder to predict when there are frequent discoveries only makes sense if discoveries make the future harder to predict. This means the argument must assume either that the discoveries themselves are difficult to predict, or that their effects are difficult to predict.

A
Predictions of scientific and technological discoveries, or predictions of their effects, have harmful consequences in some societies.
The argument doesn’t depend on whether predictions are harmful or not—the conclusion is just about how reliable predictions are, not their consequences.
B
The development of a society requires scientific and technological discoveries.
The argument isn’t concerned with what it takes for a society to develop, only how reliable predictions are under certain conditions.
C
Forecasts of scientific and technological discoveries, or forecasts of their effects, are not entirely reliable.
In other words, it is difficult to predict discoveries, or to predict their effects. Without this assumption, there would be no link between frequent discoveries and difficulty predicting the future, so this assumption is necessary for the argument to hold up.
D
An advanced scientific and technological society frequently benefits from new discoveries.
The consequences of discoveries are irrelevant to the argument, which is just focused on how discoveries impact the accuracy of future predictions.
E
It is not as difficult to predict scientific and technological discoveries in a technologically more advanced society as it is in a technologically less advanced society.
Whether discoveries are easier or harder to predict in certain societies has no impact on the argument, which just generally claims that discoveries make predictions less accurate.

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LSAT PrepTest 103 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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