Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT139 S2 P1 Q5 Explanation

New Urbanism

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsWeakenSociety

Keep going in LSAT Lab

  • Save & drill this skill build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

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.

Passage

Over the past 50 years, expansive, low-density communities have proliferated at the edges of many cities in the United States and Canada, creating a phenomenon known as suburban sprawl. Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, a group of prominent town planners belonging to a movement called New Urbanism, contend that suburban town planners contend, as it is to imagine the concept of family independent of the home.

Suburban housing subdivisions, Duany and his colleagues add, usually contain homes identical not only in appearance but also in price, resulting in a de facto economic segregation of residential neighborhoods. Children growing up in these neighborhoods, whatever their economic circumstances, are certain to be ill prepared for life in a diverse society. give people of diverse backgrounds and lifestyles an opportunity to interact and thus develop mutual respect.

Opponents of New Urbanism claim that migration to sprawling suburbs is an expression of people’s legitimate desire to secure the enjoyment and personal mobility provided by the automobile and the lifestyle that it makes possible. However, the New Urbanists do not question people’s right to their own values; instead, they suggest that individual mobility, consumption, and wealth should be valued absolutely, regardless of their impact on community life.

What this question is testing

Weaken

Your task

Find the choice that makes the argument's conclusion less likely to be true.

Common trap

Answers that look negative but attack a claim the argument never relied on.

Winning move

Find the assumption the argument depends on, then pick the choice that undermines it.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
5.

Which one of the following, if true, would most weaken the position that the passage attributes to critics

Answer choices

  1. Irrelevant Comparison10% picked this

    Most people who spend more time than they would like getting from one daily task to another live in

    This compares where people are located, but not why they are located in those areas.

  2. Irrelevant Comparison11% picked this

    Most people who often drive long distances for shopping and entertainment live in small towns rather than in

    This compares where people are located, but not why they are located in those areas.

  3. Irrelevant Comparison7% picked this

    Most people who have easy access to shopping and entertainment do not live

    This compares where people are located, but not why they are located in those areas.

  4. Correct71% picked this

    Most people who choose to live in sprawling suburbs do so because comparable housing in neighborhoods that do not require extensive

    Why this is right

    This provides an alternative explanation (cost) of migration to sprawling neighborhoods to the one provided by the critics in the third paragraph (enjoyment and personal mobility).

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

  5. Out of Scope1% picked this

    Most people who vote in municipal elections do not cast their votes on the basis of candidates'

    The issue of voting is not relevant to an assertion about why people choose to live in sprawling suburban areas around large cities.

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free