Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT121 S1 Q26 Explanation

Reza: Language requires the use

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

TopicsMust be True

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Stimulus

Reza: Language requires the use of verbal signs for objects as well as for feelings. Many animals can vocally express hunger, but only humans can ask for an egg or an apple by naming it. And using verbal signs for objects requires other objects, which in turn requires conceptual thought.

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
26.

If all of Reza’s statements are true, then which one of the following must

Answer choices

  1. Correct68% picked this

    Conceptual thought is required for

    Why this is right

    This reflects the 1st --> 4th move from our chain: use of able to concept. Language ? verb signs ? disting. ? thought for objects from others When we write A ? B ? C, we can say that A requires B and C. Here we see that language requires the use of verbal signs for objects; it requires the ability to distinguish some objects from other objects; and it requires conceptual thought.

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

  2. Illegal Reversal8% picked this

    Conceptual thought requires the use of verbal signs

    This answer choice is saying conceptual ? use of verbal thought signs for objects The paragraph gave us these relationships. use of able to concept. Language ? verb signs ? disting. ? thought for objects from others So we can see that this answer is making an illegal backwards move from the 4th thing to the 2nd thing.

  3. Too Strong: impossible1% picked this

    It is not possible to think conceptually

    This is a strongly worded idea that we have no support for. They never issued any statements about what's required for conceptual thinking. So we have no means of proving that there's a situation where you can't conceptually think about something.

  4. Too Strong: all9% picked this

    All humans are capable of conceptual

    Are newborn babies capable of conceptual thought? Of course not. Are humans in a coma capable of conceptual thought? Not so long as they're in a coma. These examples demonstrate how this answer is too strong. If we knew that all humans are capable of language, then we would know that all humans are capable of conceptual thought (because our conditional chain shows that language implies conceptual thought). But we don't know that all humans are capable of language, so we have no way to prove anything about "all humans".

  5. Illegal Negation13% picked this

    The vocal expressions of animals other than humans do not require

    We know that if language, then conceptual thought This answer seems to be trying to bait us into an illegal negation. It wants us to think "animals don't have language", and then to think if not language, then not conceptual thought

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