- Mon Apr 28, 2025 1:37 pm
#112726
Hi jona,
I think that you may be overly focused on individual/literal word choices at the risk of potentially missing the "big picture" in your approach to reading comp passages. Of course, careful reading is critical and there are certainly times when one word can make an answer wrong. However, the LSAT often uses synonyms in correct answer choices, and passages sometimes uses synonyms or similar words to convey an idea that has been previously discussed in the passage.
Your reason for eliminating Answer E due to the difference between the words "different market" (line 55) instead of "related markets" (line 13) is "splitting hairs" and focusing on the wrong idea. While it is true that these words are not identical in meaning, and that "different market" may refer to a completely unrelated market in some situations, the way that the word "different" is being used here in the passage is referring to a related market. The example of the tying arrangement that follows in the paragraph should help make this clear. I'm not even sure if leverage (as explained in the passage) would work between two markets that are completely unrelated.
The first sentence of paragraph four states, "The antitrust prohibitions focus instead on abuses of monopoly power that exclude competition in the monopolized market or involve leverage--the use of power in one market to reduce the competition in another" (my emphasis)(lines 48-52). This sentence clearly indicates that using leverage is an abuse of monopoly power, so the answer to this question would have to be "Yes," which immediately eliminates Answers A and B. Answers C and D are incorrect because the reasons given do not match the second criterion for abuse of monopoly power listed in paragraph one.
