Summary
If any of the Green Ensemble’s corporate sponsors had withdrawn their financial support, the group would have been forced to disband this year. But the Green Ensemble did not disband this year.
Very Strongly Supported Conclusions
None of the corporate sponsors of the Green Ensemble withdrew their financial support. (We know that if any had withdrawn, the Ensemble would have shut down. But it didn’t shut down. So there’s no way any corporate sponsor could have withdrawn financial support.)
A
None of the Green Ensemble’s corporate sponsors withdrew their financial support of the group this year.
Must be true, because we know the Ensemble has not shut down. This triggers the contrapositive of the first sentence, which tells us that none of the corporate sponsors could have withdrawn their financial support.
B
Earlier this year the Green Ensemble found other sources of funding for next year, making the group less dependent on corporations for financial support.
We don’t know that the Ensemble got funding from other sources. It may have gotten all of its funding from corporate sponsors.
C
During this year corporate funding for the Green Ensemble has been steadily increasing.
We don’t know whether corporate funding has increased or decreased. All we know is that no corporate sponsor withdrew financial support.
D
This year corporate funding was the source of more than half of the Green Ensemble’s income.
We don’t know what proportion of the Ensemble’s funding comes from corporate sponsors.
E
Corporate funding for nonprofit theater groups like the Green Ensemble has recently increased.
We don’t know whether corporate funding has increased. All we know is that no corporate sponsor withdrew financial support.
About (E), one thing to keep in mind is that the LSAT always baits you to make assumptions. As much as you can, resist taking the bait and making those assumptions. More people in the car, may not mean that the driver will be distracted and therefore get into accidents more often. Those passengers could be angels. They could even positively help the driver drive better.
More people in the car, however, does mean that there are more people in the car.
Consider the same car that gets into the same fatal accident. In one world, that car has 1 person in it, in another world that car has 5 people in it. Which world do you think the fatality rate would be higher? Of course the car with more people in it.
That’s how (E) weakens the argument without having to assume anything.
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why would the cholesterol of someone taking the medication be typically higher than the average cholesterol of someone in that person’s age group even though the medication is effective in lowering cholesterol?
Objective
The correct answer should tell us about a difference between people who take the medication and people who don’t that might explain why people who take the medication have higher average cholesterol despite the medication’s effectiveness. For example, maybe people who take the medication start off with above average cholesterol, which could be why the take the medication in the first place. Or maybe people who take the medication engage in cholesterol-increasing activities that the average person does not.
A
A recently developed cholesterol-lowering medication is more effective than the medication described above.
A new, different drug has no impact if we have no reason to think that the average person takes that new drug.
B
Another medication is prescribed to treat high cholesterol just as often as the medication described above is.
A different drug has no impact if we have no reason to think that the average person takes that new drug. Even if we did know that the average person takes a different drug, we don’t know that the different drug is more effective at decreasing cholesterol.
C
In most cases, people with high cholesterol levels are not treated with drug therapy but are put on restrictive low-cholesterol diets.
What happens to most people with high cholesterol doesn’t matter, because we’re trying to explain a discrepancy concerning people who are on the cholesterol-reducing drug.
D
The medication described above is usually prescribed only for people whose cholesterol level is at least 30 percent above the average for their age group.
This tells us people given the medication typically start with cholesterol significantly higher than average. That’s why the drug, even though it helps reduce cholesterol, does not bring the drug-takers’ cholesterol level down to the average person’s cholesterol level.
E
Within the population as a whole, approximately the same number of people have relatively high cholesterol levels as have relatively low cholesterol levels.
The specific number of people with high or low cholesterol does not affect average cholesterol levels of people who take the medication or average cholesterol levels of people who don’t take the medication.