June 2015 LSAT Section 1 Question 25

The availability of television reduces the amount of reading children do. When television is made unavailable, a near...

alannadels on April 17, 2022

Unsure as to why A is correct

When looking at the explanation for A, we can see that in the stimulus there are two inverse correlations. Watching tv is inversely correlated to reading and vice versa. However, in A, those inverse correlations are not present. In A, the correlations present are constant. When one thing is constant, the other is as well. How is this the same reasoning as the stimulus?

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Naryan-Shukle on April 20, 2022

Hi @alannadels,

I think the confusion might come from what the question is actually asking. They want to know which of the answer choices illustrate a parallel way of reasoning. IE - in one of the answer choices, an argument will be made in a similar way. The actual content of that argument is completely irrelevant.

Ex: Most people like ice-cream. Therefore, you should eat ice-cream.

Okay, which one of these two is a example of parallel reasoning?

(A): Ice-cream is good, therefore ice-cream is the best.

(B): Most dolphins despise abstract art, therefore you shouldn't buy Bitcoin.

The answer is actually B. The content itself has absolutely no bearing on HOW an argument is made. In this example, the stimulus author used something the majority do, to then make a suggestion. That's exactly what B does as well. A is only similar as it mentions ice cream.

In terms of the real question, the stimulus makes an argument that the correlation between to things (TV, reading) means one caused the other (TV = no reading.) The actual content of how those things correlate (inverse, 1:1, 1:2) is not the point. They're related, which the author takes to mean they're causal.

Of all the answer choices, ONLY (A) does this as well. Two things correlated (money supply and interest rates) mean one causes the other (MS stabilizes IR.)

Hope this helps!