LSAT 112 – Section 1 – Question 12

LSAT 112 - Section 1 - Question 12

December 2001

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT112 S1 Q12
+LR
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
A
5%
151
B
9%
154
C
4%
150
D
5%
152
E
78%
161
138
147
156
 +Medium 147.196 +SubsectionMedium

The consumer price index is a measure that detects monthly changes in the retail prices of goods and services. The payment of some government retirement benefits is based on the consumer price index so that those benefits reflect the change in the cost of living as the index changes. However, the consumer price index does not consider technological innovations that may drastically reduce the cost of producing some goods. Therefore, the value of government benefits is sometimes greater than is warranted by the true change in costs.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the value of government benefits is sometimes greater than is warranted by the true change in costs because consumer price index doesn't account for technological advances that may significantly lower production costs.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The author concludes that government benefits can sometimes be too high because the consumer price index (CPI) doesn't consider technological advances that may reduce production costs. However, he also explains that the CPI tracks changes in retail prices.

Even if production costs go down, we don't know whether this will impact retail prices. Also, the CPI still measures retail price changes, which reflects the cost of living, so production cost changes are irrelevant.

A
fails to consider the possibility that there are years in which there is no change in the consumer price index
This doesn’t explain why the argument is vulnerable to criticism. Even if there are years when there’s no change in the CPI, the author still jumps to the conclusion that government benefits are sometimes too high because they don’t account for production costs.
B
fails to make explicit which goods and services are included in the consumer price index
The author doesn’t list every single good and service that’s included in the CPI, but this isn’t a flaw in his argument. We know that the CPI detects monthly changes in the retail prices of goods and services overall.
C
presumes, without providing warrant, that retirement benefits are not generally used to purchase unusual goods
This doesn’t explain why the argument is vulnerable to criticism. Even if some people use retirement benefits to purchase unusual goods and other people don’t, the CPI is still used to account for overall changes in the average cost of living.
D
uncritically draws an inference from what has been true in the past to what will be true in the future
The author doesn't draw an inference from what has been true in the past, nor does he make a conclusion about what will be true in the future. He concludes that government benefits are sometimes too high based on a claim about technology lowering production costs.
E
makes an irrelevant shift from discussing retail prices to discussing production costs
The author talks about the CPI, which measures changes in retail prices. He then draws a conclusion based on technology that may lower production costs. But we have no idea whether it would impact retail prices, and the CPI accounts for changes in retail prices anyway.

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LSAT PrepTest 112 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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