LSAT 151 – Section 4 – Question 07

LSAT 151 - Section 4 - Question 07

September 2018

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

Ask a tutor

Target time: 1:16

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
PT151 S4 Q07
+LR
+Exp
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Net Effect +NetEff
Analogy +An
A
5%
155
B
92%
163
C
1%
153
D
1%
148
E
1%
153
133
141
149
 +Easier 145.196 +SubsectionEasier

Politicians often advocate increased overall economic productivity while ignoring its drawbacks. For example, attempting to increase the productivity of a corporation means attempting to increase its profitability, which typically leads to a reduction in the number of workers employed by that corporation. Thus, attempting to increase productivity in the economy as a whole may benefit business owners, but will increase the number of unemployed workers.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that increasing productivity in the economy as a whole may help business owners, but it will increase unemployment. She supports this by saying that increasing productivity in a corporation means increasing profit, which often means reducing the number of employees in that corporation.

Identify and Describe Flaw
This is the cookie-cutter part to whole flaw, where the argument assumes that what is true of a part of something is also true about the whole. Here, the author assumes that increasing productivity in the whole economy will lead to more unemployment, simply because increasing productivity in a single corporation can reduce the number of employees there.

A
presumes, without providing justification, that increased unemployment is sufficient reason to abandon increased productivity as an economic goal
The author never claims that politicians should abandon the goal of increased economic productivity. She just notes that they often overlook the drawbacks of this goal.
B
fails to justify its presumption that attempting to increase productivity in the economy as a whole would produce results similar to those produced by attempting to increase productivity in a single corporation
The author assumes that what is true of a single corporation is also true of the economy as a whole. Just because increasing productivity in a corporation may reduce employees doesn’t mean that increasing productivity in the economy will increase unemployment.
C
unfairly criticizes politicians in general on the basis of the actions of a few who are unwilling to consider the drawbacks of attempting to increase productivity
The author doesn’t generalize about all politicians based on the actions of a few. She just notes that politicians often advocate for increased economic productivity while ignoring its drawbacks. This also seems to be a factual, contextual statement, not an unfair criticism.
D
fails to justify its presumption that attempting to increase productivity in the economy as a whole is always more important than the interests of workers or business owners
The author never assumes that increased economic productivity is always more important than the interests of workers or business owners. She points to unemployment as a drawback of increased productivity, but she never makes any claims about which one is more important.
E
fails to address all potential drawbacks and benefits of attempting to increase productivity at a single corporation
The author’s argument is vulnerable because she assumes that a drawback of increasing productivity at a single corporation also applies to increasing productivity in the economy as a whole, not because she doesn’t address all potential drawbacks and benefits.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 151 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply