#27 - Global Reference, Must Be True

[Robert Carroll]

Mazen,

I did say that paragraph was needed as context!

Further, the rest of the last paragraph makes it clear that general scientific principles are not copyrightable because they are not a "particular way in which the underlying ideas are expressed."

In any case, it seems clear that answer choice (A) is the answer.

Robert Carroll

[mkarimi73]

Can (C) be safely removed from contention because of the term "usually" in the answer choice? Thanks.

[mab9178]

Hi Robert,

I have benefited from many of your posts, and for that I sincerely thank you.

I am also grateful to PowerScore experts (especially Adam Tyson who was incredibly thoughtful and detailed in his replies to my posts) for helping us LSAT students.

You are truly helpful and I am sorry if my post rubbed you the wrong way. Also, I appreciate how fast and competent you are, but to me answer-choice A was not that clear, or clearly inferable.

More importantly, my ongoing struggle is timing: to me timing is a challenge, particularly on reading comprehension, not so much on logic games and reasoning. Without the time constraint, I am getting nearly every question correctly!

As to this question, Rachael's technique -- identifying the pertinent statements from the passage as a whole, and putting them together, to make a "must be true" statement that would translate into the correct answer-choice -- made a lot of sense to me, but it was time consuming.

Your explanation, on the other hand, seemed quicker, but I could not grasp it. Context is important; sure I get that; but you can argue that nearly every question on RC is context-dependent; and so that did not help me.

Furthermore, I feel that the sentence I quoted in my initial post is essential to inferring the correct answer-choice, and that without it the third paragraph, contextually speaking, would not be helpful to selecting A. So, I respectfully, expressed my disagreement with your explanation.

But what was most important to me, and which seems to have gotten lost in the discussion, is whether I missed something in your explanation that could gain me few more seconds on test-day, because as I said above you seem to have arrived at the answer quicker.

Since I posted, I trained myself to be more alert to statements that could be pulled together before I confront a question like 27 so I could promptly apply Rachael's technique to save time. But if you can help me add to my toolbox a different technique that would save me time, it would be much appreciated because my strategy of being alert ahead of time to statements throughout the passage is also time consuming for it takes away from noticing other things, like big picture questions, for which I have to reread.

Again, thank you Robert for indulging me.

Respectfully,
Mazen

[gabejimenez7@gmail.com]

Two of the best tools we have in RC are process of elimination and research, and those are what I used the first time I attacked this question. It's too broad a question to come up with a specific prephrase, so I just hit the answers with a general understanding of the overall passage and got rid of any answers that were obviously wrong because they were not supported. Here's what that looked like to me:

A: Maybe. I like it, sounds like some of what I remember reading. Contender.
B: I'm pretty sure the author didn't discuss the value of patents at all, and they also said patents don't protect underlying ideas. The windmill example stood out in my mind here. Loser.
C: This sounds like a totally new idea, but I could be wrong about that. Memory isn't always reliable, so I'll keep it for now. Contender.
D: "Permission from the copyright holder" is definitely a new idea. My memory isn't perfect, but I trust it enough to eliminate this one. Loser.
E: Did the author say this? If so, it must have been back at the beginning. I sure don't remember it, and it's a pretty bold claim, but perhaps I'll check. Contender.

Notice that I am very forgiving of the answers. I'll keep something even if I don't love it, and only eliminate the obvious bad answers (obvious to me, anyway - you may have a different sense of these same answer choices.) Now, having done that work, I am going to choose one answer and research it. If I like one contender more than the others, I always start with that one, and in this case that's answer A. Can I find support for it?

Turns out that I can, in the same places that Robert and Rachel discussed earlier in this thread. That's good enough for me! I can stop my process here and select A with confidence. I won't waste time on researching those other two answers because I already know that there is support for my first pick, and there won't be support for more than one.

This might sound like a slow process, and maybe it is a little slower than some other questions where you could come up with a solid prephrase before looking at the answers, but that's to be expected. Not every question will go by quickly and easily, and the time you save on one question is time you can afford to spend on another. Don't worry if this doesn't seem fast, but instead focus on being accurate.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

First, mkarimi73, absolutely right! Usually is way too strong of an adverb here.

And I like your strategy, Gabe. I often keep things I'm not sure about as contenders and deal with the contenders after I've gone through a first pass. To eliminate something on a first pass, I want to be certain it's wrong. When I pick the correct answer, I then only need to consider my contenders, and it's a much faster process.

[mab9178]

Gabe: Thank you for sharing your approach ("don't worry"; you gotta teach me how

Rachael: Thank you for backing Gabe's approach (execute a first pass, eliminate obviously incorrect answer, table contenders, and finally closely compare the contenders against the support) with your expertise; experienced opinion adds confidence, and surely helps lessen the worry

Thank you all
You're much appreciated
Mazen

[nivernova]

I want to know why C is wrong

[Robert Carroll]

nivernova,

Let me ask you - where in that passage is there an indication that answer choice (C) is true?

Answer choice (C) is contrary to the middle sentence of the last paragraph ("Whereas patents protect..."). Patents and copyrights are different, according to the author, and it's not just a difference where one encompasses the other - there seem to be unique areas of protection for each category of intellectual property right. Thus, answer choice (C) is not established anywhere in the passage.

Robert Carroll