June 2010 LSAT Section 5 Question 9

Which one of the following statements most accurately characterizes a difference between the two passages?

ibrmdz on September 28, 2020

Argument or Facts

I am having a hard time understanding the last statement in the Argument or Facts section. The statement follows... "It is inaccurate to say that a diet high in refined sugar cannot cause adult-onset diabetes, since diet in refined sugar can make a person overweight, and being overweight can predispose a person to adult-onset diabetes" I do not understand how it is an argument. It does not contain words introducing conclusion in order to make it an argument.

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shunhe on October 2, 2020

Hi @ibrmdz,

Thanks for the question! So this is actually an argument. The conclusion doesn’t always have to be marked by “signaling words” that say it’s a conclusion. There technically don’t have to be any signaling words at all, but here we do have some words signaling the premises. The word “since” indicates that what follows is a premise that’s going to explain what comes before (a conclusion of some kind). So think about how everything kind of fits together here.

Premise: Diet in refined sugar can make a person overweight
Premise: being overweight can predispose a person to adult-onset diabetes.
Conclusion: It is inaccurate to say that a diet in refined sugar cannot cause adult-onset diabetes.

Do you see how the two premises line up to support the conclusion? The logic is what makes it an argument, not necessarily the presence of a certain word.

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