Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT119 S3 Q8 Explanation

In jazz history, there have

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

TopicsPrinciple-Conform

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Stimulus

In jazz history, there have been gifted pianists who, because they had no striking musical ideas, led no memorable recording sessions. But precisely because they lacked such ideas, they were able to respond quickly to the ideas of imaginative and difficult leaders. masterful touches to some of the greatest jazz recordings.

What this question is testing

Principle-Conform

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
8.

Which one of the following principles is best illustrated by the

Answer choices

  1. Out of Scope: recognize weaknesses1% picked this

    The success of a group enterprise depends on the ability of the leader to recognize the weaknesses of

    The successful group enterprise in this paragraph was a great jazz recording, led by an imaginative and difficult leader. Did that leader recognize the weaknesses of others in the group? We were never told anything like that, so there's nothing to match that text up with.

  2. Too Strong: any / requires11% picked this

    The production of any great work requires contributions from those who are unimaginative

    We only have evidence that the production of some great work included contributions from those who are unimaginative but technically skilled. We can't say that all great work requires such contributions. We don't even know that these great jazz recordings required these contributions.

  3. Too Strong0% picked this

    People without forceful personalities cannot become great leaders in

    Too Strong: cannot Out of Scope: forceful personalities We heard about some gifted pianists who weren't great leaders of recording sessions. Was it because of their forceful personalities? No, it was because of their lack of striking musical ideas. The passage never talks about "forceful personalities".

  4. Correct86% picked this

    A trait that is a weakness in some settings can contribute to greatness

    Why this is right

    We could pick this answer from strength of language alone. We're doing a Most Supported task, so we want the weakest language we can work with, since it's easier to support a weak claim than a strong claim. This answer says, "a trait that is X is some settings can do Y in other settings". To support that we only need one example. The trait of "lacking striking ideas" was the trigger for two of our three causal relationships. Not having striking ideas made these gifted pianists bad at leading recording sessions (it was a weakness in the setting of them being the band leader). But not having striking ideas made them good at responding quickly to the ideas of creative but weird leaders. That allowed them to work with those leaders on some of the greatest jazz recordings. (their lack of striking ideas contributed to their achievement of being on classic recordings). One weird part of this match is that the answer compares Setting 1 to Setting 2. Meanwhile, in the conversation we just read, it felt like the setting was the same (a recording session) and what changed was whether the gifted pianist with no ideas was leading the session or was reacting to some quirky genius who was leading the session. It felt more like this answer should say "a trait that's a weakness in one job role can contribute to greatness in another job role". But the term "setting" is inherently vague and malleable, so this is nitpicky and (E) still feels the most supportable.

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

  5. Too Strong: no one2% picked this

    No one can achieve great success without the help of others who are able to bring

    Another piping hot sizzler out of the oven: No one! can be successful without the help of others. We heard a narrow story within the narrow realm of jazz history. We shouldn't use such a narrow data point to support an extreme principle. Also, in this story we have no idea if the imaginative leaders needed the help of these gifted pianists to achieve success.

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