June 2007 LSAT Question Explanations June 2007 - Sec 2 - LR...

June 2007 - Sec 2 - LR - Q9

Video Transcript:

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question 9: Although video game sales have increased steadily over the past
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three years we can expect a reversal of this trend in the very near future.
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Historically over three quarters of video games sold have been purchased by
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people from 13 to 16 years of age, and the number of people in this age group
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is expected to decline steadily over the next ten years. Alright, so argument or facts? We have an
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argument. What is this passage trying to convey? It's that we can expect a reversal
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of this trend. What was this trend? That video game sales increased steadily over
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the past three years. We can expect that to reverse in the very near future. And
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how does the author prove that? Well, historically three quarters of video games sold
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have been purchased by people from 13 to 16 years of age and the number of people
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in this age group is expected to decline steadily over the next ten
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years. So now that we have a clear understanding of this argument let's proceed to the
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question stem. Which one of the following if true would most seriously weaken
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the argument. Most seriously weaken... This is a weaken question. So we're trying to
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weaken his argument that we can expect a reversal of this trend in the very near
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future.
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Again this trend being the increase in video game sales over the past few years.
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And why? Because historically three quarters of video games have been bought by people from 13 to
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16 years of age and the number of people in this age group is expected to decline
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steadily over the next ten years. So let's take a look here at (A). Most people 17
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years old or older have never purchased a video game. And you notice that if anything
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(A) strengthens this argument by telling us people above this age do not buy
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video games. So (A) is out. We are trying to weaken. (B) Video game rentals have declined over
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the past 3 years.
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Completely irrelevant. This argument is about sales and the fact that video game
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rentals have declined over the past three years is entirely consistent with
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the increase in video game sales
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over that same period. So (B) does not help us and (B) would be eliminated. (C) New
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technology will undoubtedly make entirely new entertainment options available over
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the next 10 years. And again you notice if anything (C) strengthens this argument. Not only are
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we gonna have less people between the ages of 13 and 16
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who historically buy three quarters of video games but also new technologies
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are going to come out with new entertainment options. So just another
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reason to expect a reversal in this trend in the near future. So (C) would be
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eliminated. (D) The number of different types of video games available is
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unlikely to decrease in the near future. Again completely irrelevant. What does that have to do
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with this argument? Which brings process of elimination to (E).
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Most of the people who have purchased video games over the past three years are
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over the age of 16. And you notice this clearly weakens this argument because over the
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past few years when we saw this increase in video game sales most of the people
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buying them were over sixteen. The author though looks to historical numbers and
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says historically three quarters of video games have been purchased by people ages
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13 to 16 but what we really care about is who was buying them over these past
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three years where we saw an increase in sales.
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And (E) tells us that there are people over the age of 16.
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So the premise that the author gives us that this group of ages 13 to 16 is gonna decrease over the next
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ten years doesn't really matter.
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So it weakens the argument and (E) would be the correct answer.