Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Medium

PT119 S1 P1 Q6 Explanation

Definition of Prosperity

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsLocate DetailSociety

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Passage

Economists have long defined prosperity in terms of monetary value, gauging a given nation’s prosperity solely on the basis of the total monetary value of the goods and services produced annually. However, critics point out that defining prosperity solely as a function of monetary value is questionable since it fails to recognize quality of life may in fact initiate economic activity that, by the economists’ measure, bolsters prosperity.

It can also happen that communities seeking to increase their prosperity as measured strictly in monetary terms may damage their quality of life and their environment. The situation of one rural community illustrates this point: residents of the community value the local timber industry as a primary source of income, and they the harvest limitations would lower their wages or even cause the loss of jobs.

But critics of the economists’ view argue that this view of the situation overlooks a crucial consideration. Without the harvest limitations, they say, the land on which the community depends would be seriously damaged. Moreover, they point out that the residents themselves cite the abundance of natural beauty as one of the will thus lose much more—even understood in monetary terms—if the proposed harvest limits are not implemented.

Economists respond by arguing that to be a useful concept, prosperity must be defined in easily quantifiable terms, and that prosperity thus should not include difficult-to-measure values such as happiness or environmental health. But this position dodges the issue—emphasizing ease of calculation causes one to disregard substantive issues that directly influence real and quantifiable measure, but it is a poor substitute for an accurate appraisal of literary merit.

What this question is testing

Locate Detail

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

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

The question
6.

In the passage, the author cites which one of the

Answer choices

  1. Out of Scope: adequate substitute4% picked this

    that hats, sunglasses, and sunscreens provide an adequate substitute for the

    I can imagine the chairperson of a polluting company making this extreme argument that, "We don't need an ozone layer as long as we've got Ray-Ban's, Trucker Caps, and SPF 50". But the author never suggested that accessories and sunblock could replace the entire ozone layer.

  2. Too Strong9% picked this

    that environmental protection measures are unpopular and often rejected

    This is overly general. There is a citation in the 2nd paragraph of one community protesting one environmental protection measure. It seemed unpopular. They seemed to reject it. But the author never cited a generalization that these measures typically are unpopular and often get rejected.

  3. Out of Scope9% picked this

    that the value of a locale’s environment can be gauged by the incomes

    Out of Scope: gauge locale's value Out of Scope: incomes of its residents The author never cites any way to gauge the value of a locale's environment, nor does she ever talk about the incomes of a locale's residents. In the 2nd paragraph, she mentions that the timber industry is a primary source of income to a certain community. That's the closest we get.

  4. Correct73% picked this

    that timber harvest limits are needed to save one area from

    Why this is right

    The second sentence of the 3rd paragraph supports this answer. Without the harvest limitations, the land on which the community depends would be seriously damaged. Because the question asks which claim is cited by the author, people may have been nervous to pick this, thinking, "Wait, the critics said this, not the author. It says 'they say' referring to the critics." The verb to cite is where we get the word citation. These mean the same as to attribute a claim to someone or to make an attribution. In other words, the question stem was literally asking, "Which of these answers is something the author quoted someone else saying?" If it came directly from the author's brain, the stem would say "the author makes which one of the following claims", not cites which claim.

    Skill tested: Locate Detail · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  5. Out of Scope: most nations5% picked this

    that most nations measure their own prosperity in terms broader than

    The passage never discusses any specific nations, nor does it ever generalize about what's true in over 50% of nations.

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