There are rumors that the Premier will reshuffle the cabinet this week. However, every previous reshuffle that the Pr...

shunhe July 10, 2020

Hi @Lillian,

Thanks for the question! So it definitely sucks when there’s an answer choice that you don’t understand. If you really can’t understand it after reading it a couple of times, for the sake of time, I’d move on to the other answer choices and see if there’s anything there that’s super appealing or super not appealing that you can eliminate. If, for example, you can eliminate all the other answer choices, then what remains must be the correct answer choice, and you don’t even have to understand it.

I would also just try to think of different ways to simplify the language, break it down into chunks, and rephrase the answer choice (or wherever the phrase is) to make it more simple. So here, for example, we have the statement “a hypothesis is undermined when a state of affairs does not obtain that would be expected to obtain if the hypothesis were true.” OK, well that’s a doozy, but at least you should know what each of these words means individually. A hypothesis is undermined: ok, well we know what that means. OK, and this happens “when a state of affairs doesn’t obtain that would be expected to obtain.” Well, this is just saying, “when something we think should happen doesn’t happen.” And then the last bit “if the hypothesis were true” is pretty obvious. So how can we rephrase this? Well, a principle here is: a hypothesis is worse off when something doesn’t happen that we would expect to if that hypothesis were true.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

Marcool October 23, 2021

Hello,

Is it only me? But I've been noticing there are some typos throughout the homework. I have attached an example below.

B: A hypothesis is undermined when a state of affairs does not obtain that would be expected to obtain if the hypothesis were true. ("That" is used instead of "what")

D: Even if in me past a phenomenon was caused by particular circumstances, it is erroneous to assume that the phenomenon will recur only under the circumstances in which it previously occurred. (In "me" past?)

It's a bit frustrating when I'm beating myself about not understanding an answer choice only to realize that there's typo. :/

Karen-Norris January 22, 2022

No it's not just you. I've noticed a few typos also. In some cases, I've picked the wrong answer because the typographical error made the correct answer less appealing. The answer on B didn't make sense to me. It seems to be missing some words, but which words? Here is one guess, "A hypothesis is undermined when a state of affairs does not obtain that WHICH IT would be expected to obtain if the hypothesis is true." Or maybe, "that WHICH IT WOULD HAVE BEEN expected to obtain" But even that doesn't really make sense... I erroneously checked "A" thinking the "most likely false" hinted at probability.

Abigail January 23, 2022

Hello @marcool and @karen-norris,

Thank you for bringing those to our attention. We know that there were a few typos that occurred in the transfer of LSAC's questions into our system and we are working on fixing them as we notice them. There was indeed a typo in answer choice D, but not in answer choice B. Answer choice D should read "Even if in the past" instead of "Even if me past". However, there was no typo in answer choice B, it is just a difficult wording.

Regarding answer choice B, "the state of affairs that does not obtain" is referring to the fact that "no such meetings have occurred or are planned" which is something "that would be expected to obtain" if the Premier was going to reshuffle his cabinet. The hypothesis that is undermined is the hypothesis that the Premier is going to reshuffle his cabinet.

I hope this clears up answer choice B. Feel free to follow-up and I apologize for the rare typos.

Abigail