LSAT 111 – Section 3 – Question 13

LSAT 111 - Section 3 - Question 13

October 2001

You need a full course to see this video. Enroll now and get started in less than a minute.

Ask a tutor

Target time: 1:18

This is question data from the 7Sage LSAT Scorer. You can score your LSATs, track your results, and analyze your performance with pretty charts and vital statistics - all with a Free Account ← sign up in less than 10 seconds

Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT111 S3 Q13
+LR
+Exp
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Math +Math
A
5%
161
B
11%
160
C
0%
157
D
79%
168
E
4%
158
141
151
162
 +Medium 147.206 +SubsectionMedium

J.Y.’s explanation

You need a full course to see this video. Enroll now and get started in less than a minute.

President of the Regional Chamber of Commerce: We are all aware of the painful fact that almost no new businesses have moved into our region or started up here over the last ten years. But the Planning Board is obviously guilty of a gross exaggeration in its recent estimate that businesses are leaving the region at the rate of about four a week. After all, there were never more than about one thousand businesses in the region, so if they were really leaving at such a rate, they would all have been gone long ago.

Summarize Argument
The president claims the Planning Board's estimate that businesses are leaving the region at a rate of four per week is an exaggeration. He supports this by saying that since there were never more than about a thousand businesses in the region, and no new businesses have moved in over the last ten years, they would have all disappeared by now if that estimate were accurate.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The president assumes that the Planning Board’s estimate has been the case for a long period of time. But just because business are leaving the region at a rate of four per week doesn’t mean that they have been leaving at this rate for many months or years. If business only started leaving at this rate very recently, the president’s argument falls apart.

A
focuses on what is going out of a system while ignoring the issue of what is coming into the system
The president doesn’t ignore the issue of what’s coming into the system. In fact, he explicitly states that “almost no new businesses have moved into our region or started up here over the last ten years.”
B
confuses a claim about a rate of change within a system with a claim about the absolute size of the system
The argument addresses a claim about the rate of change and a claim about the absolute size of the system, but the president doesn’t confuse these claims. Instead, he uses a claim about absolute size to refute the claim about the rate of change.
C
argues against a position simply by showing that the position serves the interest of the Planning Board
The president never claims that the Planning Board’s estimate serves their own interest.
D
treats a claim about what is currently the case as if it were a claim about what has been the case for an extended period
The president treats the claim that businesses are currently leaving the region at a rate of four per week as if it has been the case for an extended period of time. But perhaps businesses only began leaving at that rate very recently. If so, the president’s argument falls apart.
E
attacks what was offered as an estimate on the ground that it is not precise
The president never attacks the precision of the Planning Board’s estimate. Instead, he claims that the estimate is exaggerated.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 111 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply