June 2007 LSAT Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

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Question 16.

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Taylor: Researchers at a local university claim that 61 percent of the information transferred

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during a conversation is communicated through nonverbal signals.

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But this claim, like all such mathematically imprecise claims, is suspect because claims

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of such exactitude could never be established by science.

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So pausing here looking at Taylor's passage first, argument or facts?

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And clearly we have an argument.

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Taylor's point is that this claim is suspect.

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And what is this claim?

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Well, the claim that researchers are making that 61 percent of information transferred

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during a conversation is communicated through nonverbal signals.

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And how do we know that this claim is suspect?

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Well, the premise is that because claims of such exactitude could never be established

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by science.

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Okay, so now turning our attention to Sandra: While precision is unobtainable in many areas

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of life, it is commonplace in others.

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Many scientific disciplines obtain extremely precise results, which should not be doubted

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merely because of their precision.

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So Sandra, argument or facts?

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You notice this is clearly just a set of facts here where she points out some considerations

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that she believes that Taylor's overlooking?while precision is unattainable in many areas of

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life, it's commonplace in others, and many scientific disciplines obtain extremely precise

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results so they should not be doubted merely because of this precision.

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All right, so moving to the questions stem, the statements above provide the most support

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for holding that Sandra would disagree with Taylor about which one of the following statements.

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Disagree.

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So this is a Point at Issue question.

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So a type of Must Be True question because again we're looking to the statements that

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these individuals have made and trying to find the point that they disagree about.

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So let's turn our attention here to (A).

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Research might reveal that 61 percent of the information taken in during conversation is

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communicated through nonverbal signals.

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Is that the point at issue?

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What will Taylor say to (A)?

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We're not quite sure if research might reveal it, Taylor's just saying that we can't believe

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this claim because claims of such exactitude could never be established by science.

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So actually I guess Taylor would disagree with this.

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He does not believe that research can reveal this because claims of such exactitude could

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never be established by science.

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So safe to say that Taylor disagrees.

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But what about Sandra?

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Do we know what Sandra thinks about (A)?

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Does Sandra mention whether she believes research might reveal that 61 percent of the information

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taken in during a conversation's communicated through nonverbal signals?

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And you notice, she does not mention that.

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Sandra's claims are much more broad, much more general, doesn't address (A) so we don't

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know Sandra's opinion so (A) cannot be the correct answer and (A) would be eliminated.

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Again, we're looking for an answer choice where somebody agrees and the other person

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disagrees.

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Which brings us to (B).

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It is possible to determine whether 61 percent of the information taken in during a conversation

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is communicated through nonverbal signals.

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So kind of similar to (A).

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Research might reveal, (B) says it is possible to determine but again, this is what Taylor

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seems to be taking most issue with, this idea of being able to determine whether this claim

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is accurate because again such claims of exactitude have never been established by science.

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So again, seems like Taylor would disagree with that statement.

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Does not agree that it's possible to determine whether this happens, because claims of such

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exactitude could never be established by science.

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What about Sandra though?

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And again you notice same problem that we had in (A) we have in (B), Sandra does not

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address this.

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Sandra's claims are much more broad and general so we do not know Sandra's opinion on (B)

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so (B) is out.

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(C) the study of verbal and nonverbal communication is an area where one cannot expect great precision

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in one's research results.

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Well, do we know what Taylor thinks about (C)?

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The study of verbal and nonverbal communication is an area where one cannot expect great precision

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in one's research results.

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And again you notice Taylor does not address (C) at all.

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We do not know Taylor's opinion of that.

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We just know that this claim that 61 percent of information is transferred during a conversation

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nonverbally is suspect because claims of such exactitude could never be established by science.

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Sandra too, we have no idea what Sandra's opinion on this is.

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We know that Sandra thinks that many scientific disciplines obtain extremely precise results.

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But nothing about the study of nonverbal or verbal communication.

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So again, we do not know either's opinion on (C) so (C) clearly does not follow.

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Moving to (D), some scientists can yield mathematically precise results that are not inherently suspect.

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So let's take a look now, what does Taylor think about (D)?

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If you look at Taylor's last sentence, his premise is, ". . . claims of such exactitude

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could never be established by science."

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So clearly Taylor disagrees that some sciences can yield mathematically precise results that

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are not inherently suspect.

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So Taylor clearly disagrees, but what about Sandra?

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And you notice Sandra says, "Many scientific disciplines obtain extremely precise results

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that should not be doubted merely because of their precision."

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So Sandra agrees with (D).

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So (D), Taylor would disagree with it, Sandra agrees with the statement.

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That is their disagreement, it is the point at issue, so (D) would be the correct answer.

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But again, just making sure, checking (E), if inherently suspect claims are usually false

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then the majority of claims made by scientists are false as well.

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So we see a general principle in (E) and clearly we know neither Taylor nor Sandra's opinion

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on this general principle, they never address it so how could (E) be their disagreement.

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(E) is eliminated.

June 2007 - Sec 2 - LR - Q16

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