Ecologist: Landfills are generally designed

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

TopicsRole

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Stimulus

Ecologist: Landfills are generally designed to hold ten years' worth of waste. Some people maintain that as the number of active landfills consequently dwindles over the coming decade, there will inevitably be a crisis in landfill availability. However, their prediction obviously relies on the as currently active ones close and is therefore unsound.

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

The claim that there will be a crisis in landfill availability plays which one of the following roles

Answer choices

Contradiction3% picked this
It follows from the claim stated in the argument's
Some people maintain that their prediction follows from the first sentence, but the arguments contends exactly the opposite.
3%
Wrong Role3% picked this
It is the main conclusion of
The claim plays the role of opposing point.
3%
Wrong Role1% picked this
It establishes the truth of the
The claim plays the role of opposing point.
1%
Correct89% picked this
It is a claim on which the argument as a whole is designed
Why this is right
This correctly describes the role of opposing point.
Skill tested: Role · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
89%
Wrong Role4% picked this
It is an intermediate conclusion of
The claim plays the role of opposing point.
4%

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