LSAT Logical Reasoning › Determining which answer most helps to resolve the paradox
It is time to face the fact that public libraries throughout the country should be converted to fitness facilities. The country's citizens are progressively becoming less healthy and must have access to fitness facilities in order to improve health. Meanwhile, public libraries take up space but do not provide value to the public. The best course of action is clear.
The author of the passage is most likely to agree with which of the following?
Access to fitness facilities is necessary for citizens to improve health
Public libraries have not served a valuable purpose in the past
Public libraries have caused the country's citizens to be unhealthy
Public libraries have provided value to the public in the past
It is possible for citizens to improve health without increased access to fitness facilities
The author does not make a judgment about the historic value provided by public libraries, leaving that question open. The author does state, however, that citizens "must have access to fitness facilities in order to improve health." Thus, the author apparently holds the view that access to fitness facilities is necessary for improved health.
Much of the recent scholarship surrounding counter-terrorism studies has fallen under heavy criticism for its ambiguous use of labels, its lack of interviews with actual terrorists, and its inability to create reproducible results. Despite these shortcomings, Dr. Jane Waxman, a Professor of terrorism studies, has concluded that these counter-terrorism studies are very useful.
Which of the following, if true, would help explain the apparent discrepancy between the Professor’s conclusion and the problems surrounding recent scholarship on counter-terrorism?
Having concrete examples of poor scholarship can help others in the field avoid those same mistakes.
Dr. Waxman has emphasized in the past her support for the field of counter-terrorism studies.
Many other disciplines have similar problems to counter-terrorism studies.
Several other professors agree with Dr. Waxman.
Many of the problems that the recent scholarship points out have existed for a while.
We are looking for an answer that helps explain why Dr. Waxman finds the existing counter-terrorism scholarship useful in spite of its weaknesses. The correct answer does this by showing that the weak scholarship can be useful to future scholars. The rest of the answers do not help resolve the paradox.
After replacing her old air conditioner with a new, energy-efficient unit, Paula’s electric bills increased.
Each of the following, if true, contributes to an explanation of the increase mentioned above EXCEPT:
The new air conditioner uses a smaller share of the electricity used by Paula’s home than did the old unit.
Soon after the new air conditioner was installed, Paula adopted a child, doubling the size of her household.
Paula installed an electricity-intensive indoor tanning bed after she replaced her air conitioning unit.
Paula's electricity costs increased by 15 cents per kilowatt hour after she replaced her air conditioner.
Following the installation of her new air conditioner, Paula's neighborhood experienced a prolonged and severe heat wave, requiring heavy use of the new unit.
The correct answer here is the one that does not explain the apparent paradox. That the new unit uses a smaller share of total electricity is consistent with its being more energy efficient. It does not explain how her electric bills could have gone up despite her installation of the more efficient unit; all other answers provide possible resolutions of such apparent paradox.
A child sells lemonade by the road. The child put ice in the lemonade. When lemonade has ice in it, lemonade is cool to drink and refreshing. On hot days, pedestrians and motorists will only drink cool and refreshing beverages. But the child sells more lemonade on cold days than on hot days.
Which of the following best resolves the above paradox?
On hot days, the ice melts.
On cool days, there are more motorists than pedestrians.
On hot days, the pedestrians do not travel very far.
On cool days, the child stays out longer.
Motorists and pedestrians will usually buy lemonade.
If the ice melts the lemonade will not be made cool and refreshing. Because pedestrians and motorists will only drink beverages that are cool and refreshing on hot days, the child will not sell any lemonade on hot days because the lemonade will not be cool and refreshing.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is one of the primary ways that economists determine the health of an economy. Unfortunately, GDP is very difficult to calculate and many economists realize that official GDP reports are inaccurate. Despite this, many economists feel that they can accurately gauge the health of an economy.
Which one of the following, if true, most helps resolve the apparent contradiction in the paragraph above?
There is another accurate metric that economists can use to gauge the health of an economy.
GDP can be calculated using very simple sets of data.
Official GDP reports include a disclaimer that explains that the report may have flaws.
Several preeminent economists have concluded that it is impossible to accurately gauge the health of an economy.
The government, which reports GDP, has an incentive to overstate the data to make the economy look healthier than it is.
We are looking for an answer that helps explain why economists feel like they can accurately gauge the health of the economy despite the fact that they think their primary means of doing so may have flaws. The correct answer helps resolve this paradox by showing that there could be another metric that economists use to help gauge the health of the economy. The other answers either are irrelevant or make the paradox harder to explain.
Two years ago, the state legislature significantly increased the fines for distracted driving offenses in an attempt to reduce traffic accidents. The legislature also made such offenses more severe with regard to possible driver license suspensions, and publicized the new penalties on highway signs and television commercials. Yet recent studies show that since the changes, the number of tickets for distracted driving has actually increased statewide.
Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy in the passage above?
The state has experienced a significant population boom over the past two years.
Some drivers in the state are still unaware of the changes to the distracted driving laws.
Car manufacturers have recently added some safety features, such as additional lights or audible signals, to warn drivers who are veering out of traffic lanes.
Speed limits in many parts of the state have increased over the past two years.
The increase in distracted driving tickets within the state is a statistically significant increase.
The correct answer choice resolves the discrepancy by explaining that an overall population increase could increase the total number of tickets despite the deterring effects of the legislative change. Note that it is the total number of tickets, not the average tickets per person, that has increased. The only other answer choice that comes close to explaining the discrepancy is that some drivers are unaware of the changes. However, this answer choice is weak, as it only applies to “some” drivers; more importantly, it does not explain why the total number of tickets has increased rather than stayed the same. The other answer choices are not useful in explaining the discrepancy.
Over the past ten years, insurance premiums have increased, resulting in a large decrease in insurance enrollment across the country. Insurance company revenues, however, have progressively increased in each of the ten years during this period, and industry analysts predict further increases in years to come.
Which one of the following, if true, offers the best explanation for the situation described above?
The decrease in the number of people enrolling for health insurance over the past ten years has been more than offset by the increases in insurance premiums.
The rise of concierge medicine exceeds the number of those enrolling in traditional insurance in most high-income areas.
Most insurance companies raise their premiums every three years.
Insurance companies donate substantial sums of money to political campaigns.
More individuals are seeking a subsidy for their health care.
Here, the author describes two simultaneous trends that, at first blush, seem to contradict one another. Insurance premiums have increased, which have led to a decrease in insurance enrollment. This first part is logical. However, interestingly, revenues for insurance companies have continued to rise despite the decreased enrollment. The correct answer choice must provide additional revenue that compensates for the decrease in revenue from decreased enrollment. Only the answer choice: “The decrease in the number of people enrolling for health insurance over the past ten years has been more than offset by the increases in insurance premiums” provides this increased revenue that would explain this phenomenon.
Recent evidence has conclusively shown that cholesterol levels do not correlate with human lifespan. Despite this new evidence, doctors still advise patients with high cholesterol to take medication and engage in physical activity to reduce cholesterol levels.
Which of the following, if true, would most help resolve this discrepancy?
Low levels of cholesterol are proven to increase quality of life.
Engaging in extensive physical exercise can stress the human heart.
Most medications that doctors prescribe to reduce cholesterol levels are clinically proven to be effective.
High cholesterol levels are proven be correlated with hypertension disorders.
Many doctors receive large gifts from pharmaceutical companies.
The correct answer helps explain why doctors would advise their patients to reduce their cholestrol levels even if it would not increase their longevity.
The owner of a local convenience store wants to increase store revenue. Soft-serve ice cream machines provide a cheap snack for customers on a hot day and also produce ice cream at a low production cost. The owner of the local convenience store installs a soft-serve ice cream machine to increase revenue. After the soft-serve ice cream machine is installed, the revenue of the store goes down.
Which of the following best explains the drop in revenue?
Customers started buying the cheap ice cream instead of more expensive snacks.
The ice cream machine brought in more customers, but all customers started spending less in the the store.
Due to the high maintenance costs of the ice cream machine, the store’s expenses went up.
Parents only bought the ice cream for their children on hot days.
The ice cream is sold at such a low price it’s relative impact on the revenue of the business is negligible.
If the customers start buying cheap snacks instead of expensive snacks, that could explain the drop in revanue. If the icecream brings in more customers and if those customers spend less there is the possibility that it could increase revenue. Maintenance costs are expenses not revenue. Finally, be careful to avoid answers that are not relevant to the question or that do not make sense, such as the ‘relative impact’ answer.
A computer technician notices several bugs in a computer indicating that the computer has one or more viruses. The computer technician scans the computer for viruses. After discovering several viruses in the system, the technician runs anti-virus software. When the software is finished, the technician confirms that all viruses have been deleted but that the bugs in the computer are still present.
Which of the following statements does NOT resolve the paradox described above?
There were several viruses not initially detected by the anti-virus software.
The bugs were not caused by the viruses, but by a problem with the operating system.
The viruses were deleted but the bugs could not be fixed by the anti-virus software.
After the viruses were deleted the computer became infected with several new viruses.
What the technician believed to be bugs were actually not bugs.
Whether or not several viruses were initially detected by the anti-virus software does not matter because it is clearly stated that all viruses were deleted. In fact, even if several viruses were not initially detected, they would still have been deleted by the anti-virus software.