Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT137 S2 Q22 Explanation

People often praise poems

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

TopicsRole

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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

People often praise poems for their truth. But to argue that expressing true propositions contributes to the aesthetic merit of a poem is misguided. Most of the commonplace beliefs of most people are true. Whatever the must certainly be rare rather than common.

What this question is testing

Role

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
22.

Which one of the following most accurately describes the role played in the argument by the claim that whatever the basis of poetic excellence is, it must certainly

Answer choices

  1. Wrong Role12% picked this

    It is the overall conclusion drawn by

    The conclusion is the 2nd sentence. In 90% of Role questions, the last claim (or claims) is Evidence. If we were tempted to think this was the author's conclusion, we should subject it to our Two Part Conclusion Checklist (is it the author's opinion? did the author provide support for it?) The author never provided a reason for why we should believe that poetic excellence must be based in something rare, not common.

  2. Correct74% picked this

    It is a premise that, in conjunction with another premise, is intended to support

    Why this is right

    The last two sentences are the two premises that support our Conclusion, in the 2nd sentence.

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

  3. Two Premises5% picked this

    It is a premise offered as the sole support for the

    This is almost correct, but there are two premises (the last two sentences) so it's not correct to call this the sole support.

  4. Wrong Role5% picked this

    It is background information that, in itself, does not provide support for

    This is a premise, not background. In order to get to her conclusion that "true doesn't add aesthetic value to a poem", the author is combining "truth is common" with "what gives poems their aesthetic excellence is rare, not common".

  5. No Explanation Given4% picked this

    It is a proposition for which the argument seeks to advance

    The author doesn't explain or support in any way that "what gives poems their excellence is rare, not common".

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