October 2010 LSAT Section 1 Question 9

In the first paragraph, the author refers to a highly reputed critic's persistence in believing van Meegeren's forger...

jordierose02 on June 6, 2023

Example 2

I don't understand how A and D are not the same answer. Question states P: Higher Alt. -> Thinner Air P: MC Higher Alt. > PC Alt. C: MC TA > PCTA A States P: One gets Older -> One gets Wiser P: H Older > D C: H Wiser > D D States P: Older Tree -> More Rings P: L Tree Older > T Tree C: L Tree More Rings > T Tree Why is D any more valid than A? I guess the argument for D over A is that A states "one" meaning it only applies to an individual. However, this confuses me as well since D states "a tree" which could also mean it only applies to one type of tree. What if Lou has a pine tree that grows 1 ring per year, but Theresa has a Palm tree that grows 5 rings per year? Then in that case the conclusion would be flawed. I also understand that for A it could be that the Daughter was born wiser than Henrietta, but then this is the same issue as the tree scenario. I am also confused about the initial question as well in terms of whether or not it is a valid or flawed argument. As it also has some ambiguity to it. How do we know that the altitude rule applies across cities, and is not instead relevant only to the city itself? What if Mexico City has naturally thick air due to a lot of pollution, and therefore Panama City would have thinner air? I really was sure as soon as I saw A that it was the correct answer, and then got to D and was really stumped on how to choose between the two, and the video didn't help me enough with this distinction, if someone could please elaborate to help me out that would be great.

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Emil-Kunkin on June 9, 2023

Hi, this is a really good question. I see your point, and I think this comes down to how we interpret the rule given in the first sentence of D. In the passage, we have a general rule that applies in all cases. Higher altitude always means thinner air. So, the only factor that goes into air thinness is altitude.

In A, we have a rule that applies only to each individual. We know that each person gets wiser as they get older, but we do not know how wise one person is compared to another given that each person has a baseline level of wisdom we don't know.

D is frankly a bit unclear. I originally read it as a general rule that always applies, much like the stimulus. I'll admit I might have been biased by the elementary school "fact" that every tree grows exactly one ring per year (I think this is actually true, but either way I think this goes beyond the realm of common sense so it's not info that we can bring in), but you make a good point, this could also be the case that different trees grow at different rates.

Ultimately, I'd say this comes down to the fact that A is clearly wrong, but D could be read either way.
When in doubt, find the one that looks more different from the original passage, and eliminate that one.

I do think this is a valid argument, since we know that higher equals thinner air, we know that the higher place must have thinner air.