Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT116 S2 Q17 Explanation

No small countries and no

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

TopicsMust be True

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Stimulus

No small countries and no countries in the southern hemisphere have permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council. Each of the five countries with a permanent seat on the Security Council is in favor of increased international peacekeeping efforts and a greater role for the United Nations in moderating regional disputes. efforts are firmly against increased spending on refugees by the United Nations.

What this question is testing

Must be True

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

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

The question
17.

If the statements above are true, which one of the following must

Answer choices

  1. Could Be False4% picked this

    Some small countries do not want the United Nations to increase its

    We don't know anything about small countries except that they don't have a permanent seat on the UNSC. It's possible that all small countries want the UN to increase spending on refugees. The countries in the last sentence might all be large.

  2. Could Be False1% picked this

    Some countries in the southern hemisphere are not in favor of increased

    We don't know anything about southern countries except that they don't have a permanent seat on the UNSC. It's possible that all southern hemisphere countries want the UN to increase its peacekeeping efforts.

  3. Could Be False33% picked this

    Some countries that have permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council are against increased spending on refugees

    We have no way of linking permanent seat on the UNSC to the last sentence, so we have no idea if any of five countries with permanent seats on the UNSC are against increased spending. They might all be in favor, and the countries discussed in the last sentence are just other countries who favor increased peacekeeping.

  4. Could Be False1% picked this

    Some small countries are in favor of a greater role for the United Nations in

    We don't know anything about small countries except that they don't have a permanent seat on the UNSC. It's possible that all small countries are against the UN increasing its role in moderating regional disputes.

  5. Correct61% picked this

    Some countries that are in favor of a greater role for the United Nations in moderating regional disputes are not

    Why this is right

    We know that all five countries with permanent seats on the UNSC are not small not southern hemisphere favor a greater role for moderating regional disputes favor increased peacekeeping efforts So we know that "some" countries in favor of a greater role for moderating regional disputes are also not in the southern hemisphere (we know there are at least five countries where both these traits overlap).

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

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