#2 - Garbage in this neighborhood probably will not be

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation


Method of Reasoning. The correct answer choice is (C)

First, we begin by analyzing the structure of the problem:

     Premise: Garbage is usually collected here on Wednesdays,
     and the garbage collectors in this city are extremely
     reliable.

     Premise: Monday was a public holiday.

     Premise: After a public holiday that falls on a Monday,
     garbage throughout the city is supposed to be
     collected one day later than usual.

     Conclusion: Garbage in this neighborhood probably

The argument is sound and the conclusion seems reasonable. The language
in the conclusion is not absolute (“probably”), and this is justified since
the language used in the argument—“usually” and “supposed to be”—
is also probabilistic. Knowing that the argument is valid, the question
you must ask yourself is, “How would I describe the structure of this
argument?”

Answer choice (A): This answer forces you to make an assessment of
the premises (the “evidence”) as they relate to the conclusion. Are the
premises irrelevant to the conclusion? Clearly not. Therefore, this answer
is incorrect.

Answer choice (B): This is a Half Right, Half Wrong answer. The
argument does establish “that one thing is likely to occur.” But, is this
established by ruling out all of the alternative possibilities? No, to do that
would mean presenting arguments against the garbage being collected on
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, etc. Since this section of the answer choice does
not occur, this answer is incorrect.

Also, because the argument does not rule out all the alternatives, the
conclusion is not established “indirectly.”

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer. Consider each piece of the
argument:

     “providing information”—a variety of information about the garbage
     situation is provided.

     “application of a general rule”—the general rule is that “After a public
     holiday that falls on a Monday, garbage throughout the city is
     supposed to be collected one day later than usual.”

     “to a specific case”—the specific case is the pickup of garbage this
     week in this neighborhood.

Given that all elements occurred and the answer presents an accurate
description of the way the author made his or her argument, this answer
is correct. Now, take a moment and compare this answer to the prephrase
you made after reading the stimulus. How similar are the two? Given
that you may not be familiar with the language used by the test makers,
the two may not be very similar. As your preparation continues, you
will become more comfortable with the language and your Method of
Reasoning prephrasing will improve. For example, note the use in this
answer of “general rule” to describe the last sentence of the stimulus. The
test makers could also have used a phrase like “basic principle” to achieve
the same result. Your job is to match their language to what occurred in the
stimulus.

Answer choice (D): This answer describes an overgeneralization—a
situation where one instance is used to make a broad based conclusion.
This is a Reverse Answer since the stimulus actually uses a general
principle and applies it to one instance. In addition, the language in the
answer is far too strong in saying “all actions of a certain kind” when the
language in the stimulus was probabilistic.

Answer choice (E): This is an Exaggerated Answer. The conclusion states
that “Garbage in this neighborhood probably will not be collected until
Thursday this week” and the use of “probably” is a clear and obvious
indication that the author does not think the Thursday garbage pickup is
inevitable.

[reop6780]

(... I faced my major problem of finishing a section within 35 min. excluding time for transferring answers, so started timing within 30 min... and had to face dramatic change in my score from missing avg. 4 to 7-8 per LR section.. )

#2 is method reasoning which is my major weakness along with "flaw" section.

I chose answer B believing that explanation on holidays were meant to exclude other alternatives so that conclusion is left with "Thursday."

I guess there were supposed to be more alternatives described for an answer B...?

The next answer that I thought was plausible was answer E due to the language. The conclusion is described with "will not..." in the first sentence while the premise in the last sentence is with "is supposed to be.."

Is "supposed to be" equivalent expression with "will not" ?
(I'm thinking of the difference of "may, can.." with "must, will" here)

Unfortunately, the correct answer is C...

What I struggled most with this answer choice is "general rule."

When I think of general rule, I think of something like "earth is round."

Is general rule "Garbage...Wednesdays" or "Garbage..until Thursday"?

(Wednesday perhaps?)

For answer C, I was thinking of a structure that has certain principle, and a specific situation that fits the principle.

However, the stimuli has another rule of "holiday" that interferes with the general rule of "Wednesday."

Still, the answer C most attractive?

[Robert Carroll]

reop6780,

I understand why the term "general rule" can be difficult in this stimulus. The "general rule" to which the correct answer choice refers is the rule "after a public holiday that falls on a Monday, throughout the city is supposed to be collected one day later than usual." The specific case is this neighborhood - garbage here is usually collected on Wednesday, but by applying the general rule of skipping a day when there is a public holiday on a Monday, garbage would be picked up on Thursday in this neighborhood. Once you see what the general rule and specific case are, the right answer pops out at you.

Now, you also had difficulty with some tempting wrong answer choices. As for answer choice B, note that the stimulus did not say, for instance, "Garbage cannot be collected Monday, as it was a holiday. Nor can it be collected Tuesday, because that isn't the day it's normally collected. Nor can it be collected Wednesday, because it normally is, so it has to be collected one day later, due to the holiday," or something like that. The stimulus didn't rule out each of these earlier possibilities, leaving you with only Thursday as the earliest. The garbage isn't being collected on Thursday because that's the earliest it can be, but because the combination of the specific rule "usually collected on Wednesday" and the general rule "pushed one day later due to the holiday on Monday" combine to tell you it will be collected Thursday.

In fact, the conclusion is expressed as "Garbage in this neighborhood probably will not be collected until Thursday this week." You can see that the phrase "probably will not" indicates only a probability, just like the premises, so the argument did not treat the conclusion as inevitable. "Supposed to be" means here that the rule is that garbage is collected one day later than normal. Since being collected before Thursday would NOT be later than normal, it "probably will not" be earlier that it's "supposed to be." As for what "supposed to be" means in general, we know that this is a rule. The author in this stimulus uses that rule to prove the likelihood of a certain event occurring on Thursday. Since this is a Method of Reasoning question, we aren't called to defend or attack an argument, as we would in a Strengthen of Weaken question, so we don't need to ask ourselves questions like, "Do people always do what they are supposed to do? Is there a law that says the garbage must be collected one day later?" Instead, taking what the author to say as true, we analyze the abstract structure of the argument, as with any Method of Reasoning question.

I hope this answers your question!

Robert

[rpark8214]

Hi,

For review, what does indirectly establishing support entail? What does it look like? What is the difference between directly and indirectly establishing support?

Thanks!

[Francis O'Rourke]

Hi rpark,

It is important to read the entire answer choice here. Answer choice (B) states that the argument proceeds by indirectly establishing support for a conclusion "by directly ruling out all the alternative possibilities." The qualifier Indirectly in this case tells us basically the same thing in this case as the bolded phrase does.

Robert already provided an example of this in his comments above:

"Garbage cannot be collected Monday, as it was a holiday. Nor can it be collected Tuesday, because that isn't the day it's normally collected. Nor can it be collected Wednesday, because it normally is, so it has to be collected one day later, due to the holiday," or something like that.

In general, "direct" and "indirect" support (which I believe you are asking about) are not standard, clearly defined concepts on the LSAT. I would distinguish them by the absence (direct) or necessity (indirect) of additional inferences or steps to get to the conclusion.

Imagine I told you the following: After my latest alchemy experiment, I found several ounces of gold in the flask, where before there was only mercury. I would call that direct support for a conclusion that I may have transformed mercury into gold. I don't have to take any more steps to prove the presence of gold .

Compare that to the following: After my latest alchemy experiment, I found yellowish, metallic mark on the inside of the flask. That evidence does not directly tell me that I created gold in the flask, but it leads me to a conclusion that a different metal may have been created, which may help prove my conclusion.