The most successful economies

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsMust be True

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Stimulus

The most successful economies have been, and will continue to be, those that train as many people as possible in the human skills required to research, to develop, and to apply new technology. Japan is a model for this sort of training effort. Europe as a whole is in a weaker position: like most European countries, Japan has far too many workers qualified to perform only menial tasks.

What this question is testing

Must be True

Conclusion

This is a fact-set, not an argument. Your job is to chain the facts and pick the answer they make most directly true.

Evidence

The key facts: economic success goes to economies that train as many people as possible in new-tech skills. Japan is the model. Europe is in a weak spot — not enough skilled labor in new technologies, not enough scientists. Even Japan has shortages, like most European countries.

Evaluate

Look at the relationship being set up: training as many people as possible in new-tech skills → economic success. Europe currently has shortages in exactly those skills. So if Europe wants to be more successful, the path goes through more training in new technologies.

Be careful with the trap answers — they'll often invent comparisons (Europe vs. other places, Japan as a benchmark, etc.) that the passage doesn't actually support, or push the inference further than the facts allow.

Goal

Pick the answer that says: to become more economically successful, Europe needs to train more people in new technologies.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question

Which one of the following can be properly inferred from

Answer choices

Unsupported3% picked this
There is a greater worldwide shortage of research scientists than there
The passage gives no information about a worldwide comparison between scientist shortages and engineer shortages. It mentions shortages within Europe and Japan specifically, but doesn't rank these shortages globally or against each other.
3%
Unsupported11% picked this
Japan is not the best country against which to measure a
The passage uses Japan as a model for training effort, not as a benchmark to question. Saying Japan is "not the best country against which to measure economic success" is a value judgment the passage doesn't support — and seems to contradict the passage's clear use of Japan as a positive example.
11%
Unsupported21% picked this
Japan’s successful economy depends upon an uncommonly narrow base of highly
The passage actually says the opposite: the most successful economies train as many people as possible. That's a broad base, not an "uncommonly narrow base." If anything, Japan's success is implicitly portrayed as resting on a wide training program.
21%
Correct65% picked this
To be economically more successful, Europe needs to train more people in
Why this is right
This follows directly from the chain. The most successful economies train as many people as possible in new-tech skills. Europe has shortages of skilled labor and scientists in those areas. So if Europe wants to move toward more economic success, it needs to expand its training in new technologies. This is the modest, straight inference the facts support.
Skill tested: Must be True · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
65%
Unsupported1% picked this
European countries have economies that are more successful than those of
The passage describes Europe as economically weaker on the training-and-skills dimension, not as more successful than most other countries. We have no comparison between Europe and "most other countries" on overall economic success.
1%

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