Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT11 S2 Q22 Explanation

Oil company representative: We spent

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

TopicsSufficient Assumption

Keep going in LSAT Lab

  • Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Start practicing free

Free to start

Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Stimulus

Oil company representative: We spent more money on cleaning the otters affected by our recent oil spill than has been spent on any previous marine mammal rescue project. This shows our concern for the environment. Environmentalist: You have no such concern. Your real concern is evident in your admission to the press public image, which plays an important role in your level of sales.

What this question is testing

Sufficient Assumption

Setup

The oil company says The environmentalist says

Evaluate

The environmentalist's logic only works if motives are mutually exclusive. Why? Because if the company can have both sales concerns and environmental concerns, then "your real concern is sales" doesn't prove "you don't care about the environment." Both could be true at the same time.

So the environmentalist's conclusion ("you have no such concern") only follows if a company can have only one motive for an action.

Goal

Find the assumption that rules out multiple motives. That makes the leap "real motive is sales → no environmental motive" valid.

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

The question
22.

The environmentalist’s conclusion would be properly drawn if it were true

Answer choices

  1. Correct79% picked this

    oil company cannot have more than one motive for cleaning the otters affected by

    Why this is right

    This is the bridge. If the oil company cannot have more than one motive for cleaning the otters, then once we've identified the sales motive, we've identified the only motive — and there's no room for an environmental concern. With this assumption added, the environmentalist's "real concern is sales → no environmental concern" inference goes through cleanly.

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

  2. Out of Scope1% picked this

    otter population in the area of the oil spill could not have survived without

    Whether the otter population could have survived without the cleaning is irrelevant to the company's motivation. The argument is about why the company cleaned the otters, not about whether the otters needed the cleaning. This doesn't bridge the gap.

  3. Bad Assumption18% picked this

    oil company has always shown a high regard for its profits in choosing its

    Even if the oil company has always shown high regard for profits, that doesn't close the gap. A profit-loving company could still also care about the environment in some cases. Without the additional premise that motives are mutually exclusive, this doesn't force the conclusion.

  4. Out of Scope1% picked this

    government would have spent the money to clean the otters if the oil company had not

    Whether the government would have done the cleanup if the oil company hadn't doesn't bear on the company's actual motives. The argument is about why the company acted, not what would have happened in counterfactual scenarios. This is on a different track.

  5. Out of Scope1% picked this

    oil company’s efforts toward cleaning the affected otters have been more successful than have such efforts in previous projects

    How successful the company's otter-cleaning was compared to previous projects is irrelevant to motive. The argument is about why the company spent the money, not about how well the project worked.

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill
LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free