Jenkins: Research on the properties of snow at the North Pole should be conducted in January and February. The weath...

shunhe January 9, 2020

Hi @Julie-V,

Thanks for the question! Let’s take a brief overview of the arguments. Jenkins think the researchers should go earlier to not waste funding; Lurano thinks that the researchers should wait until later, when the chances of suffering dangerous exposure to the cold are lower. It seems that the disagreement has to do with whether or not the researchers should go earlier or later based on how important we find the risk of them facing severe temperatures versus the funding available. This is what (E) tells us. Jenkins thinks that the research funding considerations do outweigh the risk to researchers, and so the researchers should go in earlier. Lurano disagrees, as he thinks that the risk to researchers posed by the temperatures during that time of year outweighs research funding considerations.

(C) is incorrect because neither of them are committed to saying that funding will be wasted or won’t be wasted if the research is carried out later. Jenkins just thinks that the chance of the funding being wasted is higher. Lurano doesn’t say anything about the funding at all. Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any further questions if you have any.

jcefalu88@gmail.com September 18, 2020

It seems to me that it would be quite a jump to make the assumption that Jenkins believes that research funding considerations outweigh the risk to researchers. Jenkins only mentions that money shouldn't be wasted, saying nothing of any potential risk that is not financial, in many other questions of this type we could come to an incorrect answer by making such a jump in reasoning. I would think it's just as appropriate to make a similar stretch to argue that by Lurano saying "the weather will still be quite cold" is enough to say Lurano believes it will not be warm enough to melt snow by April or May. In any right I deemed both to be a gap in logic and eliminated both answers, and wound up with nothing left to choose from before making an educated guess. Is there a rule guiding when to fill a hole in the rationale by making an assumption like this? Or am I completely off the mark and in fact Jenkins' preference for research funding considerations is enough to argue that he/she believes not wasting money is more important than risk to researchers?

Ecochran September 24, 2020

I am in the same boat as Jonathan. We have been taught that if someone doesn't mention something in their argument, it cannot hold as a point at issue. Jenkins never mentions risks to the researchers, just that they should go earlier in the year. Could you elaborate on how we can make that assumption (even though, according to LSAT Max, we are not supposed to make assumptions)?

MikeND October 4, 2020

I agree with Jonathan and Ecochran; it makes sense that Jenkins prioritizes the success of the research mission ABOVE ALL ELSE, but no words in his argument indicate that he considers the risk of the research failing to outweigh the risk of danger to the researchers in the form of extreme cold. He mentions nothing about the extreme cold in January/February posing an inherent risk to the researchers. Can an instructor please explain this???

Kasra August 6, 2021

Following up on what everyone else has been saying: Jenkins says nothing of risk of suffering dangerous exposure to cold. He could be ignorant of it, he could disagree with Lurano's assessment of the risk, he could think it's outweighed by research funding considerations, etc. But we don't know based on the stimulus. Are we missing something here??