LSAT RC Question for 175+ Scorers
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:04 am
Please, consider the following statement by an author of a passage and the following question.
Author: Opponents of my view argue that because all people have the potential to become evil, no one should be allowed to obtain a firearm.
Which of the following statements is the author of the passage most likely to agree with?
A. All people have the potential to become evil.
Based on this one statement from the passage alone, is A a correct answer to this question? (I understand that the question says "most likely," and thus, technically, one would need to see all the answer choices before being able to determine which is correct. But every test prep advice and actual LSAT question of this type that I've seen suggests that there will only be one answer choice that the author actually agrees with, so it would never be necessary to differentiate the degree to which the author agrees with multiple answer choices.)
Actually, there was an actual question on an undisclosed LSAT that I took that had basically a parallel situation to the question I pose here. An argument that I just read between two people on Reddit essentially reduces to whether or not A would be a correct answer to the above question, so it reminded me of that LSAT question, and that is why I am asking it here.
When I took that undisclosed LSAT, I did in fact end up choosing the parallel to my answer choice A here because the other four choices seemed wrong, but I did not feel good about it. I don't believe that it can be properly inferred from the author's statement above that the author agrees with answer choice A. The author is simply restating their opponent's argument without giving any indication as to whether they believe the premise or conclusion of that argument. I did score 170+ though, so who knows?!
What if I changed the wording of the author's statement as follows?
Author: Opponents of my view argue that all people have the potential to become evil, and therefore no one should be allowed to obtain a firearm.
Using this wording, I believe it becomes clear that A is not a correct answer choice.
And what about this wording?
Author: Opponents of my view argue that the fact that all people have the potential to become evil implies that no one should be allowed to obtain a firearm.
This one is probably the hairiest for me. But since its meaning is identical to my initial wording, I would still say A is not a correct answer here.
All comments appreciated.
Author: Opponents of my view argue that because all people have the potential to become evil, no one should be allowed to obtain a firearm.
Which of the following statements is the author of the passage most likely to agree with?
A. All people have the potential to become evil.
Based on this one statement from the passage alone, is A a correct answer to this question? (I understand that the question says "most likely," and thus, technically, one would need to see all the answer choices before being able to determine which is correct. But every test prep advice and actual LSAT question of this type that I've seen suggests that there will only be one answer choice that the author actually agrees with, so it would never be necessary to differentiate the degree to which the author agrees with multiple answer choices.)
Actually, there was an actual question on an undisclosed LSAT that I took that had basically a parallel situation to the question I pose here. An argument that I just read between two people on Reddit essentially reduces to whether or not A would be a correct answer to the above question, so it reminded me of that LSAT question, and that is why I am asking it here.
When I took that undisclosed LSAT, I did in fact end up choosing the parallel to my answer choice A here because the other four choices seemed wrong, but I did not feel good about it. I don't believe that it can be properly inferred from the author's statement above that the author agrees with answer choice A. The author is simply restating their opponent's argument without giving any indication as to whether they believe the premise or conclusion of that argument. I did score 170+ though, so who knows?!
What if I changed the wording of the author's statement as follows?
Author: Opponents of my view argue that all people have the potential to become evil, and therefore no one should be allowed to obtain a firearm.
Using this wording, I believe it becomes clear that A is not a correct answer choice.
And what about this wording?
Author: Opponents of my view argue that the fact that all people have the potential to become evil implies that no one should be allowed to obtain a firearm.
This one is probably the hairiest for me. But since its meaning is identical to my initial wording, I would still say A is not a correct answer here.
All comments appreciated.