December 2009 LSAT Section 3 Question 7

Columnist: It has been noted that attending a live musical performance is a richer experience than is listening to r...

Mazen on December 12, 2021

Aren't A and C saying the same thing?

I always thought the verb "to purport" means "to pretend." Nevertheless, answer-choices A and C, despite using different verbs at the end of each choice, respectively, "to show" and "to explain," they (A and C) are essentially saying the same thing and should therefore be eliminated; we cannot have two correct answers! My question is: isn't the meaning of A identical to the meaning of C?

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Mazen on December 13, 2021

bump

jakennedy on January 17, 2022

Hi @Mazen,

Good question.

A. “It is what the columnist’s argument purports to show”

This is just another way of saying that it is the main conclusion of the argument.

C. “It is what the columnist’s argument purports to explain”

This is saying that the main conclusion is explaining the statement.

Example:

The rate of injury on ski slopes was greatly reduced from 1950 to 1980. This reduction was due to improvements in technology for ski boots and binding.

Here, the first statement is the statement to be explained (like answer choice C above), and the second sentence is the explanation / main conclusion (like answer choice A above).

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Mazen on January 23, 2022

Thank you Jacob.