#22 - One of the most useful social conventions is money

[Jeff Wren]

Hi lsatstudy2023,

Your approach makes sense.

The first step for any stimulus that contains an argument is identifying the conclusion.

The second step is noticing if there is any "new" or "rogue" information in the conclusion. (This isn't just helpful for Justify questions, it's helpful for many other question types such as Weaken, Strengthen, Assumption, Flaw, etc..)

Since this is a Justify question, the correct answer will need to close the gap in the argument by linking the fact that money exists in all societies to the conclusion that money was probably invented independently in more than one society.

Only Answer A does this.

(Of course, you have to be aware that the correct answer may not use the exact words "occur independently" but still will convey that idea, especially for trickier questions like this one.)

One helpful strategy to double check an answer that you're considering is to read the argument and then add the answer choice right before the conclusion to see if it logically flows and gets you to the conclusion.

[SiegfriedWang]

Can we take "money's universality across societies" to mean "all societies use money"? I eliminated A because I assumed universality = widely used but there could still be some societies that didn't use money, so A cannot fill in the gap of the argument because it didn't also say that geographically isolated societies used money.

[Luke Haqq]

Hi SiegfriedWang!

To your question, I don't see a problem with seeing those two phrases as meaning the same thing. What answer choice (A) gets at is the conclusion that money was invented "independently" in more than one society. That conclusion couldn't follow if it was the case that all societies are influenced to some extent by other societies. Answer choice (A) eliminates that possibility, allowing the conclusion to be properly drawn.