Law School Admission Test: Logical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Analytical Reasoning Exam Questions PDF download

QUESTION: 113

All too many weaklings are also cowards, and few cowards fail to be fools. Thus there must be at least one person who is both a weakling and a fool.

The flawed pattern of reasoning in the argument above is most similar to that in which one of the following?

All weasels are carnivores and no carnivores fail to be non-herbivores, so some weasels are non- herbivores.
Few moralists have the courage to act according to the principles they profess, and few saints have the ability to articulate the principles by which they live, so it follows that few people can both act like saints and speak like moralists.
Some painters are dancers, since some painters are musicians, and some musicians are dancers.
If an act is virtuous, then it is autonomous, for acts are not virtuous unless they are free, and acts are not free unless they are autonomous.
A majority of the voting population favors a total ban, but no one who favors a total ban is opposed to stiffer tariffs, so at least one voter is not opposed to stiffer tariffs.

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

The "All too many" is just literary, not logical, in nature. The first clause simply means Many or Some weaklings are cowards. The second clause can be read as Many or Most or Some cowards are fools. (Why are we seemingly being so loose in our translations? Because the choices are. Because whichever one of these turns out to be correct, it represents a significant verbal variation on the original. None of the choices reads "All too many X," or "few Y are not Z." So we have to stay a little flexible here.) With that in mind, a loose translation of the first clause would be: Some (or Most) of A are B, and the second as Some (or Most) B are C.
When we turn to the conclusion, however, we can feel confident that it can be solidly translated. We know from our formal logic training that the phrase "At least one" means precisely one thing: SOME. So the conclusion is:
Some weaklings are fools. Now, given that conclusion, we ought probably to be drawn first to options [All weasels are carnivores and no...], [Some painters are dancers, since...] and [A majority of the...], each of whose conclusions uses the word "Some" or the phrase "At least one." Let's start with those three.

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QUESTION: 114

Critic: Most chorale preludes were written for the organ, and the greatest chorale preludes written for the organ were written by J. S. Bach. One of Bach's chorale preludes dramatizes one hymn's perspective on the year's end. This prelude is agonizing and fixed on the passing of the old year, with its dashed hopes and lost opportunities. It does not necessarily reveal Bach's own attitude toward the change of the year, but does reflect the tone of the hymn's text. People often think that artists create in order to express their own feelings. Some artists do. Master artists never do, and Bach was a master artist.

If the critic's statements are true, then on the basis of them which one of the following CANNOT be true?

Bach believed that the close of the year was not a time for optimism and joyous celebration.
In composing music about a particular subject, Bach did not write the music in order to express his own attitude toward the subject.
In compositions other than chorale preludes, Bach wrote music in order to express his feelings toward various subjects.
Most of Bach's chorale preludes were written for instruments other than the organ.
Most of the great chorale preludes were written for instruments other than the organ.

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

This would be a good one to postpone, as some of the later questions were less involved than this one. The question stem asks you to find the choice that must be false, so the best approach is to read through the stimulus once but be prepared to check back with it when you consult the choices. (There's far too much detail to expect to be able to handle the choices without checking back.) As it turns out, the correct answer comes from the last few sentences. Master artists never create in order to express their own feelings. Bach is a master artist, so he never created works (chorale preludes or not) to express his feelings.

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QUESTION: 115

Quasars celestial objects so far away that their light takes at least 500 million years to reach Earth have been seen since 1963. For anything that far away to appear from Earth the way quasars do, it would have to burn steadily at a rate that produces more light than 90 billion suns would produce. But nothing that burns at a rate that produces that much light could exist for more than about 100 million years.

If the statements above are true, which one of the following must also be true on the basis of them?

Instruments in use before 1963 were not sensitive enough to permit quasars to be seen.
Light from quasars first began reaching Earth in 1963.
Anything that, from Earth appears as bright as a quasar does must produce more light than would be produced by 90 billion suns.
Nothing that is as far from Earth as quasars are can continue to exist for more than about 100 million years.
No quasar that has ever been seen from Earth exists any longer.

Answer(s): E

Explanation:

Here's a rare Inference question that's vulnerable to prephrasing: Quasars burn so hot that they can't last for more than 100 million years, but light from quasars takes at least 500 million years to get here. Quasars have only been seen since 1963, and so any quasar light that anyone on Earth has seen has to be at least 500 million years old, and so, as option [No quasar that has ever been...] points out, that quasar itself cannot exist any more. By the time its light hits us, it's been dead for at least 400 million years.

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QUESTION: 116

Medical researcher: As expected, records covering the last four years of ten major hospitals indicate that babies born prematurely were more likely to have low birth weights and to suffer from health problems than were babies not born prematurely. These records also indicate that mothers who had received adequate prenatal care were less likely to have low birth weight babies than were mothers who had received inadequate prenatal care. Adequate prenatal care, therefore, significantly decreases the risk of low birth weight babies.

Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the medical researcher's argument?

The hospital records indicate that many babies that are born with normal birth weights are born to mothers who had inadequate prenatal care.
Mothers giving birth prematurely are routinely classified by hospitals as having received inadequate prenatal care when the record of that care is not available.
The hospital records indicate that low birth weight babies were routinely classified as having been born prematurely.
Some babies not born prematurely, whose mothers received adequate prenatal care, have low birth weights.
Women who receive adequate prenatal care are less likely to give birth prematurely than are women who do not receive adequate prenatal care.

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

We have to weaken the medical researcher's argument, so as usual we have to identify the components of the argument. The conclusion is that adequate prenatal care significantly decreases the risk of low birth weight babies. The evidence for this is that hospital records show that mothers who had received adequate prenatal care were less likely to have low birth weight babies. The medical researcher also tells us that records show that babies born prematurely were more likely to have low birth weights than on-time babies. This is a classic correlation = causation argument: the author cites a high correlation between inadequate prenatal care and low birth weight babies, and then concludes that one must have caused the other. In most cases the best way to weaken these arguments is to find an alternative explanation, or to find a situation where the two are not correlated (you see X, but you don't see Y).

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QUESTION: 117

Formal performance evaluations in the professional world are conducted using realistic situations. Physicians are allowed to consult medical texts freely, attorneys may refer to law books and case records, and physicists and engineers have their manuals at hand for ready reference. Students, then, should likewise have access to their textbooks whenever they take examinations.

The reasoning in the argument is questionable because the argument

cites examples that are insufficient to support the generalization that performance evaluations in the professional world are conducted in realistic situations
fails to consider the possibility that adopting its recommendation will not significantly increase most students' test scores
neglects to take into account the fact that professionals were once students who also did not have access to textbooks during examinations
neglects to take into account the fact that, unlike students, professionals have devoted many years of study to one subject
fails to consider the possibility that the purposes of evaluation in the professional world and in school situations are quite dissimilar

Answer(s): E

Explanation:

This is a Flaw question. For these questions, it's usually possible to form a prephrase of the answer, which should save you time in reviewing answer choices. Put simply, the argument says that students should be allowed to have open book tests.
Why? Because in performance evaluations in the professional world, doctors, lawyers, etc. are allowed to refer to their books. This is nothing more than an argument by analogy. The operating assumption in all arguments by analogy is that the two things that are compared are, in fact, comparable. Therefore, the best way to weaken them is to show how the two things are not comparable. Or, in this case, where you must determine why the reasoning is questionable, look for an answer choice that says something along the lines of "the reasoning is flawed because it tries to compare apples and oranges." Option [fails to consider the possibility that the purposes of...] does just that by saying that the author hasn't considered the possibility that the purposes of the two tests mentioned in the stimulus are in fact quite dissimilar.

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QUESTION: 118

This morning, a bakery makes exactly one delivery, consisting of exactly six loaves of bread. Each of the loaves is exactly one of three kinds: oatmeal, rye, or wheat, and each is either sliced or unsliced. The loaves that the bakery delivers this morning must be consistent with the following:

There are at least two kinds of loaves.
There are no more than three rye loaves.
There is no unsliced wheat loaf.
There is at least one unsliced oatmeal loaf.
If two or more of the loaves are unsliced, then at least one of the unsliced loaves is rye.

Which one of the following could be a complete and accurate list of the loaves that the bakery delivers?

six unsliced oatmeal loaves
five unsliced oatmeal loaves, one sliced rye loaf
five unsliced oatmeal loaves, one unsliced wheat loaf
four unsliced oatmeal loaves, two unsliced rye loaves
four unsliced oatmeal loaves, two sliced wheat loaves

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

As it turns out, Rule 5 eliminates all the wrong choices, but if you tackled the rules in order, here's what you would have found: Rule 1 kills option [six unsliced oatmeal loaves], which has only oatmeal loaves. Rule 2 doesn't help, but Rule 3 kills option [five unsliced oatmeal loaves, one unsliced wheat loaf]., which has the for bidden unsliced wheat loaf. Rule 4 doesn't help, but Rule 5 knocks off options [five unsliced oatmeal loaves, one sliced rye loaf] and [four unsliced oatmeal loaves, two sliced wheat loaves], which each have two or more unsliced loaves but no unsliced rye loaf.

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QUESTION: 119

This morning, a bakery makes exactly one delivery, consisting of exactly six loaves of bread. Each of the loaves is exactly one of three kinds: oatmeal, rye, or wheat, and each is either sliced or unsliced. The loaves that the bakery delivers this morning must be consistent with the following:

Each of the following could be a complete and accurate list of the unsliced loaves that the bakery delivers EXCEPT:

three oatmeal loaves
three oatmeal loaves, one rye loaf
two oatmeal loaves, two rye loaves
two oatmeal loaves, three rye loaves
one oatmeal loaf, one rye loaf

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

The reference to unsliced loaves should point you to Rules 3, 4, and 5. Each choice has at least one unsliced oatmeal loaf, and there's no unsliced wheat loaf among the choices, but option [three oatmeal loaves] is a straightforward violation of Rule 5. With more than one unsliced loaf, this option needs to have an unsliced rye loaf as well, but it isn't there.

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QUESTION: 120

This morning, a bakery makes exactly one delivery, consisting of exactly six loaves of bread. Each of the loaves is exactly one of three kinds: oatmeal, rye, or wheat, and each is either sliced or unsliced. The loaves that the bakery delivers this morning must be consistent with the following:

Which one of the following statements CANNOT be true?

The only unsliced loaves are oatmeal loaves.
The only sliced loaves are rye loaves.
The only unsliced loaves are rye loaves.
The number of sliced loaves is exactly one greater than the number of sliced oatmeal loaves.
The number of unsliced loaves is exactly one greater than the number of unsliced oatmeal loaves.

Answer(s): C

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