Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT123 S2 Q1 Explanation

Economist: Every business strives to

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

TopicsMain Conclusion

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Stimulus

Economist: Every business strives to increase its productivity, for this increases profits for the owners and the likelihood that the business will survive. But not all efforts to increase productivity are beneficial to the business as a whole. Often, attempts to increase productivity decrease the number of well as the sense of security of the retained employees.

What this question is testing

Main Conclusion

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
1.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of

Answer choices

  1. Assumption9% picked this

    If an action taken to secure the survival of a business fails to enhance the welfare of the business’s employees, that action cannot be

    This is an assumption of the argument. We shouldn't be picking something unstated, if the argument has an explicit conclusion.

  2. Correct84% picked this

    Some measures taken by a business to increase productivity fail to be beneficial to the

    Why this is right

    This best paraphrases the argument’s main conclusion. They are doing a classic "negative to positive" translation here. When we see Not all A's are B We always translate that into Some A's are not B

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

  3. Unsupported1% picked this

    Only if the employees of a business are also its owners will the interests of the employees and owners coincide, enabling measures that will

    This point is not made in the argument. We shouldn't pick any unmentioned idea, if there was an explicit conclusion (which there is, 98% of the time).

  4. Opposing Point1% picked this

    There is no business that does not make efforts to increase

    This is part of the argument’s opposing point.

  5. Evidence4% picked this

    Decreasing the number of employees in a business undermines the sense of security

    This is a premise that supports the argument’s main conclusion. We want to be very suspicious of ourselves when we pick the final claim, on a Main Conclusion question, since the conclusion is only the final claim on Main Conclusion about 10% of the time. They know students default into assuming the Conclusion is the last claim, so this is almost aways a trap answer.

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