October 2010 LSAT Section 3 Question 2

Since there is no survival value in an animal's having an organ that is able to function when all its other organs ha...

cglee on February 17, 2020

Identifying premises and conclusions properly

Hi, Does anyone have a suggestion as to correctly identifying premises from conclusions? In the 3rd question in the video I was almost positive that the premise stating the city would close the zoo if it didn't cut deficit. Turns out, that the second sentence in the passage contained the conclusion which was the answer. Thank you for any help in advance.

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Ravi on February 17, 2020

@cglee,

Let's take a look.

As you go through a passage, constantly be asking "why?" when you read
a sentence or phrase. If nothing in the passage helps you answer "why"
for the sentence or phrase you're asking about, then you know that
it's not a conclusion; it's either background information or a premise
that's supporting something else. In this case, after the first
sentence, if we ask, "why," we don't get an answer, so we know the
first sentence isn't a conclusion. For the second sentence, when we
ask "why," we're given reasons in the third, fourth, and fifth
sentences, all of which support the idea being presented in the second
sentence. This tells us that the second sentence is the conclusion,
and the third, fourth, and fifth sentences are premises. Since the
first sentence isn't directly supporting the second sentence, it's
background information that's setting the stage for the argument.

Does that make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!

cglee on February 17, 2020

Thank you. I am going to try again.