Viewstamp Analysis: Viewpoint Identification Drill Passage #2

[lsat_cc]

Hello,

I'm a little confused about the wording of one of the answer choices to the question for this passage.

The question is "The author would most likely agree with each of the following statements EXCEPT:"

I knew this question was a Must Be True, Except question, meaning that the author must agree with four of the five answer choices and that the correct answer choice will be one that the author will not necessarily agree with. I ended up choosing answer choice E) "The validity of certain studies in the field of lying is somewhat questionable" because the last sentence of the passage states "However, the validity of such studies is clearly questionable". Given the difference in force between "clearly", which insinuates an absolute or a sureness, and "somewhat", which is not very forceful or sure at all, it doesn't seem to me that the author must agree with this answer because they don't necessarily mean the same thing.

I do understand C) as the correct answer, but I'm not sure how to not get tripped up here because it seems like the exact kind of trap the test makers would set, especially because one of the strategies in the Logical Reasoning textbook is to look at force in wording when comparing the stimulus to the answer choices.

Thank you in advance!

[Robert Carroll]

lsat,

It's true that "somewhat" and "clearly" do not mean the same thing. But we don't need identity of definition. Let's look at an example:

Say a stimulus says "All 100 questions on this test involved calculus, a branch of mathematics."

Let's say there's a Must Be True question with this, and an answer says "The first 10 questions on this test involved mathematics."

That's true - the stimulus proves that. In fact, it proves much more than that. "All 100" and "the first 10" are not identical in meaning, nor are "calculus" and "mathematics". It matters where the mismatch in definition occurs. If the answer choice is weaker than the statement in the stimulus ("the first 10" is saying less than "all 100", and "mathematics" is less specific, thus weaker, than "calculus"), the answer choice is still something that must be true.

In your situation, anything that must be true is incorrect. We have more than enough to say "somewhat questionable". So that's not exactly what the stimulus says. But is it proven? If it's clearly questionable, it's somewhat questionable as well - it's not as if the answer said "somewhat, but not entirely, questionable", which might have been a problem.

In short, we're looking at what must be true, not at the strongest statement that has to be true.

Robert Carroll