Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT120 S1 Q3 Explanation

When a lawmaker spoke out

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

TopicsPrinciple-Strengthen

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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

When a lawmaker spoke out against a research grant awarded to a professor in a university’s psychology department as a foolish expenditure of public money, other professors in that department drafted a letter protesting the lawmaker’s interference in a field in which he was not trained. The chair of the psychology department, the same legislator when he publicized a senseless expenditure by the country’s military.

What this question is testing

Principle-Strengthen

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
3.

Which one of the following principles, if established, provides the strongest justification for the department chair’s refusal, on the ground she gives, to

Answer choices

  1. Trap3% picked this

    A person should not publicly criticize the actions of a lawmaker in different cases without giving careful consideration to the

  2. Trap2% picked this

    The chair of an academic department has an obligation to ensure that public funds allocated to support projects within

  3. Correct92% picked this

    A person who has praised a lawmaker for playing a watchdog role in one case should not criticize the lawmaker for attempting to play

    Why this is right

    Answer C is correct.

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

  4. Trap1% picked this

    Since academic institutions accept public funds but do not pay taxes, a representative of an academic institution should not publicly pass judgment

  5. Trap1% picked this

    Academic institutions have the same responsibility as military institutions have to spend

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