For a ten-month period, the total monthly sales of new cars within the country of Calistan remained constant. During...

Vanessa June 11, 2014

Can someone explain why the answer is A, please? Thank you

NicoCapri June 25, 2014

I am confused by this question as well

Naz June 30, 2014

Okay let's go through this piece by piece. We have a 10-month period where the total monthly sales of new cars within a country remained constant. During this period, the monthly sales of new cars manufactured by Marvel Automobile Company doubled, and its share of the new car market within the country increased correspondingly.

So, if the total monthly sales for this country remained the same, but the monthly sales of Marvel doubled; thus, Marvel's share of the market increased (and the sales of other companies went down).

At the end of the ten-month period, emission standards were imposed on new cars sold within the country. In the following three months, Marvel's share of the market declined substantially, but their monthly sales stayed at the same total as in the ten-month period.

How could this have happened? Well, we are dealing with a percentage v. amount issue. How did the number of their sales stay the same, while their percentage of the market decrease? Think about fractions: if you have the same numerator, the fraction with the larger denominator will be smaller. So, the market (i.e., the demoniator) got bigger.

We are looking for the answer choice that cannot be true, i.e. what must be false. Remember, we deduced that the total market had to have increased. Answer choice (A) states, "The total monthly sales within Calistan of new cars by companies other than Marvel Automobile Company decreased over the three months following the imposition of the emission standards." So, answer choice (A) cannot be true because it states that the market has decreased. If the market decreased, then Marvel's share of the market could not have declined substantially if their monthly sales remained the same as that of the ten-month period.

Hope that helps! Let us know if you have any other questions.

jbarton September 25, 2017

I got this question wrong too because I'm so used to searching for "the right"/true answer. Have to remember not to forget "cannot be true" when picking answers

Adam-Estacio December 3, 2018

So "by companies other than Marvel Automobile Company" in choice (A) should be automatically be assumed as ALL companies other than Marvel? What's to prevent the reader from interpreting that choice as "some" companies other than Marvel?

Jacob-R December 5, 2018

Hi @Adam-Estacio

Two thoughts — first, the LSAT will always use precise language in its answer choices; “companies other than Marvel” is different than “some companies other than Marvel” or “certain companies other than Marvel.” Without a qualifier like that, the correct interpretation is that we are talking about all companies!

The second reason why “by companies other than Marvel” in this context must mean all companies other than Marvel is because answer A is talking about “the total monthly sales within Calistan of new cars.” Because we are talking about the entirety of the Calistanian universe of new cars sales, it must be the case that companies other than Marvel means all companies — because otherwise we wouldn’t be capturing that full universe of “total monthly sales within Calistan. I hope that helps! Please let us know if you have further questions.

Adam-Estacio December 10, 2018

@jacob If the LSAT always uses precise language, then the reader shouldn't assume all, since the LSAT didn't precisely use the word "all." Isn't that the whole point of your argument?

Jacob-R December 11, 2018

I see your point! But I think the reason the assumption of “all” is the most natural reading is because the rest of the description is categorical — “companies other than Marvel.”

For example, if I said to you, “I work weekdays” the most natural interpretation of that is that I work Monday through Friday. That is because I gave you the full category — weekdays — without any qualifier like “some weekdays” or “most weekdays.”

Here too, you get the categorical description: companies other than Marvel. You therefore don’t need the “all” unless the context otherwise implies that we are talking about a limited subset.

But I agree with you that it is a close call, and therefore a hard question.