Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT106 S3 Q19 Explanation

On a certain day, nine scheduled

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

TopicsNecessary Assumption

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Stimulus

On a certain day, nine scheduled flights on Swift Airlines were canceled. Ordinarily, a cancellation is due to mechanical problems with the airplane scheduled for a certain flight. However, since it is unlikely that Swift would have mechanical problems with more than one or the nine cancellations were probably due to something else.

What this question is testing

Necessary Assumption

Your task

Find the assumption the argument requires in order for its conclusion to hold.

Common trap

Answers that would help the argument but aren't strictly required (sufficient, not necessary).

Winning move

Negate each choice — the right one breaks the argument when negated.

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

The question
19.

The argument depends on which one of the

Answer choices

  1. Correct81% picked this

    More than one or two airplanes were scheduled for the nine

    Why this is right

    Answer A is correct.

    Skill tested: Necessary Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

  2. Trap4% picked this

    Swift Airlines has fewer mechanical problems than do other airlines of

  3. Trap1% picked this

    Each of the canceled flights would have been longer than the average flight

  4. Trap9% picked this

    Swift Airlines had never before canceled more than one or two scheduled flights on

  5. Trap6% picked this

    All of the airplanes scheduled for the canceled flights are based at

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