Marianne is a professional chess player who hums audibly while playing her matches, thereby distracting her opponents...

Julie-V August 20, 2019

Answer Explanation

Hi LSAT Max, I was able to choose (B) but was wondering if the stimulus can be diagrammed. Also, I would love an explanation as to why we can eliminate (E) because it looked like it had potential. Thank you in advance for the help, much appreciated!

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Ravi August 20, 2019

@Julie-V,

While I wouldn't diagram the stimulus, you could technically do so if
you wanted to. It might help you to diagram the reason behind
Marianne's argument.

She's arguing that since she was unaware of her humming, her humming
was involuntary and that therefore she should not be held responsible
for it.

Involuntary - >shouldn't be held responsible

The principle illustrated in (B) would certainly help justify
Marianne's argument since it's saying

Disqualifying (held responsible) - ->Voluntary

This is basically the contrapositive of Marianne's argument.

Let's look at (E).

(E) says, "Chess players should be disqualified from professional
chess matches if they regularly attempt to distract their opponents."

The problem with (E) is that Marianne did not attempt to distract her
opponents. As noted in the stimulus, her humming was voluntary (and we
should take her word for it, since it's provided as a premise in her
argument). Thus, (E) is off base, so we can get rid of it.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any other questions!