- PowerScore Staff
- Posts: 5153
- Joined: Apr 14, 2011
- Wed Feb 07, 2018 9:36 pm
#43725
I agree that the force of language here between the stimulus and the right answer is an imperfect match! I read "can be expected" as "almost certainly true", or slightly less than "must be true". Call it high probability.
In this case, that mismatch isn't enough to make this a bad answer because the goal is not to parallel the argument as a whole but to parallel the flaw. If, however, this was a standard parallel reasoning question, I would still pick it because even though other answers, like D, have the same force of language, the structure of D is completely wrong. I would only use the force of language as the deciding factor if both had structures that were roughly similar. For the same reason, if the language was identical, I would use the structure to break the tie. It's not that one is more important than the other, but that you must look at the whole rather than just at the parts.
There should never be a case where that judgment is subjective. They won't give us two answers that are each slightly imperfect but just as good as each other, and then expect you to break the tie based on some rule like "the language is more important". There should be one that is clearly better than the other, for any number of reasons. Look at it holistically, all together, to make that determination.
I hope that helps! If you have another example of a close call like this one, let us know, and we'll see what we can do about helping you see the differences more clearly.
In this case, that mismatch isn't enough to make this a bad answer because the goal is not to parallel the argument as a whole but to parallel the flaw. If, however, this was a standard parallel reasoning question, I would still pick it because even though other answers, like D, have the same force of language, the structure of D is completely wrong. I would only use the force of language as the deciding factor if both had structures that were roughly similar. For the same reason, if the language was identical, I would use the structure to break the tie. It's not that one is more important than the other, but that you must look at the whole rather than just at the parts.
There should never be a case where that judgment is subjective. They won't give us two answers that are each slightly imperfect but just as good as each other, and then expect you to break the tie based on some rule like "the language is more important". There should be one that is clearly better than the other, for any number of reasons. Look at it holistically, all together, to make that determination.
I hope that helps! If you have another example of a close call like this one, let us know, and we'll see what we can do about helping you see the differences more clearly.
Adam M. Tyson
PowerScore LSAT, GRE, ACT and SAT Instructor
Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LSATadam
PowerScore LSAT, GRE, ACT and SAT Instructor
Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LSATadam