The passage provides the strongest support for inferring that Lessing holds which one of the following views?

AsiaM on November 18, 2020

I was wondering the same!

akosua on February 10, 2021

I am also wondering the same thing. Im a bit confused!

IngridBrazil on February 20, 2021

I was wondering the exact same thing. When I read that question I went on assuming it was a Percentage X Amount fallacy and ended up thinking it was Letter C.

SarahT on June 3, 2021

^^ I did the exact same thing. Could someone from LSAT max please answer?

Lauren321 on October 21, 2021

I am also confused because in many other cases we are not supposed to assume any outside information and just accept the premises, so why in this case are we supposed to assume that Shirley is a common girl's name. Also, in the answer, it says that she overlooked the detail of flying, but bats are mammals that can fly. So are basically when are we supposed to have outside knowledge apply to the question and when not?

Ethan on May 8 at 06:25PM

Also very confused with this question considering the "Boy named Sue" lesson earlier...the Johnny Cash song was playing in my head and that part of the lesson contradicts the advice of how we approach this question.

Emil-Kunkin on May 11 at 09:06PM

You're all correct that we can't assume for sure that Shirley isn't a man, and that's not what the video does. It's evidence that supports the claim that the person in question may be a woman. While we cant treat that as dispositive we can certainly use it as a piece of evidence that points us in one direction, even if it's not proof.

We certainly can use common sense, and common sense would tell me that if I encounter a Shirley, it's more likely they identify as a woman than as a man.

That said, this question is from 1995, and I strongly suspect the modern test makers would never release this question on a new test.