Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT128 S2 Q12 Explanation

Shaw: Regulatory limits on pollution

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

TopicsMust be True

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Stimulus

Shaw: Regulatory limits on pollution emissions from power plants should be set in terms of the long-term average than peak emissions levels.

Levin: But short periods of high pollution emissions pose dangers to the environment. Your proposal is akin to enforcing the highway speed limit by measuring vehicles' average speed, including the time rather than their peak speed.

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
12.

Based on the analogy in Levin's argument, time that a vehicle spends at a stoplight is analogous to time

Answer choices

  1. Bad Match: monitoring3% picked this

    operates without any monitoring of its

    This answer would work if we removed monitoring. A vehicle's time at a stoplight (in relation to average speed) is akin to a power plant's time operating without any pollution emissions. We want an answer that's talking about time when a power plant is not emitting any pollution, but this is talking time when no one is measuring how much pollution a power plant is emitting.

  2. Bad Match1% picked this

    operates at peak

    We're looking for "time when a power plant isn't emitting any pollution", because that would match "time when a vehicle isn't 'emitting' any speed". When a car is idling at a stoplight, is it operating at peak efficiency? (No, it's just burning off gas -- peak efficiency is usually highway speeds of like 55mph, in terms of getting the best value of miles per gallon).

  3. Too Weak26% picked this

    emits pollutants at a very low

    This is close, but we want "emits zero pollutants", not just a very low level. When a car is stopped at a stoplight, it 'emits' zero speed, not a very low level of speed.

  4. Correct65% picked this

    emits no pollutants at

    Why this is right

    When a car is at a stoplight, it emits no speed. So by analogy, we'd be talking about a power plant emitting no pollutants.

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

  5. Opposite6% picked this

    emits pollutants at its peak

    This would match when a car is going its peak speed, whereas we're supposed to be matching when a car is going a speed of zero.

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