June 2017 LSAT
Section 4
Question 4
Which one of the following must be true?
Replies
isabellaivanov on October 4, 2020
Hi! I just figured this out but since we know that J has to be Urban, and that either K or F must be urban (since they need to be different) we have used up our 2 allotted urbans. Therefore, our 3 rurals will be either K or F, and G and H!Victoria on October 9, 2020
@isabellaivanov you are absolutely correct! Keep up the great work!Victoria on October 9, 2020
Hi @Karlie,Happy to help you out with the setup!
We know that a magazine is assigning photo essays to be featured in its first five monthly issues. There will be one essay per issue.
Three of the essays will have a rural theme (R) and two will have an urban theme (U).
Each essay will be assigned to one of five photographers: F, G, H, J, and K.
Theme: _ _ _ _ _
Person: _ _ _ _ _
1 2 3 4 5
Now let's go through our conditions.
Rule 1 - the essay in the first issue must have an R theme
Rule 2 - K must be featured in the issue immediately preceding the issue in which F is featured
|KF|
Rule 3 - F's essay cannot have the same theme as K's
This means that one of their essays must have an R theme and the other must have a U theme.
Rule 4 - G's essay must be featured in the third issue.
Rule 5 - J's essay must have a U theme
As J's essay must have a U theme and either F or K's essay must also have a U issue, the remaining essays must all have an R theme. Therefore, both G and H's essays must have an R theme.
F - U/R
K - R/U
J - U
H - R
Theme: R _ R _ _
Person: _ _ G _ _
1 2 3 4 5
We know quite a bit of information from the rules and the deductions that we were able to make. Therefore, we can map out a couple of scenarios to make answering the questions a bit easier.
|KF| must either be essays 1 and 2 or 4 and 5.
Option 1: |KF| are essays 1 and 2
Theme: R U R U/R R/U
Person: K F G J/H H/J
1 2 3 4 5
Option 2: |KF| are essays 4 and 5
Theme: R U R R/U U/R
Person: H J G K F
1 2 3 4 5
Now let's address the question stem. We are looking for the answer choice which must be true.
We have already made the deduction above that G's essay must have an R theme. Therefore, answer choice (D) is our correct answer.
Answer choice (A) is incorrect because we know that G's essay must be featured in the third issue and must have an R theme.
Answer choice (B) is incorrect because it is possible that J's essay is fifth and we know that J's essay has a U theme.
Answer choice (C) is incorrect because if F's essay is fifth, it is possible that it has an R theme.
Answer choice (E) is incorrect because if K's essay is fourth, it is possible that it has a U theme.
Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.