June 2007 LSAT Section 2 Question 5

Scientist: Earth's average annual temperature has increased by about 0.5 degrees Celsius over the last century. This ...

Ryn on November 11, 2021

I didn't pick B because of "most".. please help with understanding.

Hey there, I didn't pick B because of the term "most" because I thought couldn't a "little" only be needed to have this effect? Or is this thinking not right because the premise said "primarily" which means "most" and since its a premise it has to be taken as true?

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Jay-Etter on January 19, 2022

Hi Ryn,
The "most" here actually makes it a good answer option. If most warming occured before 1940, but most gas build up occured after 1940, then it's unlikely warming was caused by the buildup of gases. If it had said "a little" of the warming occurred before 1940, this wouldn't be good to weaken the argument because if only like 2-3% of the warming occured pre 1940 then it wouldn't really impact the argument - its so small its kinda an irrelevant amount (because the question specifies the conclusion is gases are primarily the cause). If the conclusion was just that gases are a contributing factor, and not that they're the primary, then changing "most" to "a little" could still weaken, because it would indicate that some warming occured before gas buildup. Hope this helps! Feel free to follow up.