#2 - For house painting, acrylic paints are an excellent

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (D)

The author describes the benefits of using acrylic paints, concluding that they are an excellent choice for house painting. One caveat mentioned is that even acrylics cannot correct surface defects, but clearly the author is not particularly concerned by that fact.

The question stem asks us to identify an answer choice that is supported by the information contained in the stimulus. Because the conclusion is already stated in the first sentence, prephrasing a conclusionary idea is unlikely to be useful. Instead, apply the Fact Test to eliminate any answer choice that cannot be proven by the stimulus.

Answer choice (A): The stimulus contains no information to help us determine what causes badly cracked paint. This answer choice fails the Fact Test and is therefore incorrect.

Answer choice (B): This answer choice contains an exaggeration. Just because acrylics are an “excellent choice” does not mean that they are the only choice that would make homeowners happy.

Answer choice (C): The author never mentioned whether acrylics should be used to paint over other types of house paint. This answer choice introduces extraneous information and is incorrect.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice. The author endorses the use of acrylic paints for house painting, despite their inability to correct surface defects. In other words, it is not a requirement for house paints that they correct such defects.

Answer choice (E): This is a tempting answer choice for those who misinterpret the question stem. Read closely! Your job is to determine what is most strongly supported by the statements above, not what most strongly supports those statements. Indeed, if you thought of this as a Strengthen question, answer choice (E) would fit the bill: if acrylic paints came in as wide a range of colors as do any other paints, this would help the author’s conclusion that they are indeed an excellent choice. However, it is impossible to infer this claim from the information contained in the stimulus. This answer choice fails the Fact Test and is therefore incorrect.

[SherryZ]

Hi there, thanks for your help!

June 2013 LSAT Sec 4 LR, Q2:

I picked C but the correct answer choice is D. Could you explain why D is right and C is not?

I really appreciate it!

---Sherry

[Scott]

HI Sherry,

Glad to help; I take two things away from the stimulus here. One is that acrylics have four characteristics of good paint, and are therefore a good choice. The other is that surface defects indicate an underlying that needs to be fixed, and the example they give is that badly cracked paint indicates water damage.

You chose answer choice (C), which is tempting because of the cracked paint example. If you see cracked paint, you wouldn't want to paint over it; instead you would want to fix the underlying problem. This seems reasonable enough. The reason that this is not the best answer is that it is too specific.

Again, in the stimulus, we learn that surface defects indicate an underlying problem and we see an example. These two sentences do not tell us anything about whether this only happens to non-acrylic paints, or from mixing the two; if anything it implies that all paints will have the same problems when there are underlying defects. Since this is a variation of the Must Be True question type, we can't introduce a new element like this. The correct answer will be found in the stimulus.

Answer choice (D) is correct because all of the elements are there in the stimulus. We are given a list of characteristics that make a good paint, and told that acrylic paints meet these requirements and are a good choice. Since this is a Must Be True question, we take this as fact. We are also given an example of problems that no paint can fix. We can therefore properly conclude that house paints are not required to fix surface defects since we know that 1)acrylic paints (or any other paint) can't do fix these and 2) acrylic paints are good house paints anyway.

[15veries]

Why is E wrong ?
In the stimulus it says "They provide everything that...." so I thought "rage of colors" are also part of the "everything" and E is supported.
I am also not sure how D is supported

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi 15veries,

What is included in "everything" is listed for you in the stimulus. E goes VERY far beyond that, by adding another item to the list, which cannot at all be supported by the stimulus. D is supported because the stimulus says they provide "everything," and they do not correct surface defects, therefore correcting surface defects is not part of the "everything" a good paint should provide. Hope that helps!