Logical Reasoning

PT14 · S4 · Q21 Monroe, despite his generally poor appetite

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

  • 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

Start practicing free

Monroe, despite his generally poor appetite, thoroughly enjoyed the three meals he ate at the Tip-Top Restaurant, but, unfortunately, after each meal he became ill.

Statements

Monroe has a generally poor appetite.

All three meals from Tip-Top made him sick 1. extra-large sausage pizza with a side of hot peppers 2. all-you-can-eat fried shrimp and hot peppers 3. two giant meatball subs with hot peppers

Hot peppers were the only common denominator.

Hot peppers alone caused him to be sick.

Evaluate

This is a bizarre question stem, since it's asking us to accept that an argument and its conclusion are all "facts".

If we accept the conclusion that , then we can make Inference synthesis takeaways like - he can eat two giant meatball subs without getting sick (after all, they played no role in making him sick) - he can eat an extra-large sausage pizza without getting sick - same, for the 2nd meal

Goal

Other than playing off the solely due to peppers that he became sick, I'm not sure where else they'd be going here, so we should probably just head to the answers.

21.

If both Monroe’s conclusion and the evidence on which he bases it are correct, they would provide the strongest support for which one of the following?

  1. Monroe can eat any of

    Too Strong: any

    We don't know anything about Tip-Top's full suite of all-you-can-eat specials. We only heard about the fried shrimp one. There could be ingredients in the other specials that Monroe is allergic or averse to, so they could still make him sick, even without peppers. Peppers were the only thing that made him sick, from those three meals. But that doesn't mean that peppers are the only thing that makes him sick, in life.

    15% picked this

  2. Correct

    If, at his third meal

    Why this is right

    This isn't provable, but it's supportable through inductive logic. If all three times he ate the peppers he got sick, and all three times he got sick solely due to the peppers, then it sounds pretty reasonable to think that if he had eaten a different 3rd meal, but same peppers, he would have still gotten sick. After all, the meatball sandwich isn't what got him sick on that 3rd meal; it was the peppers. The only way the peppers wouldn't get him sick, when served with the baked chicken, would be if the restaurant used a different stash of hot peppers for chicken than for meatball subs, if the quantity of peppers used in the chicken dish was way less than that used with the meatball subs, or if something in the cooking prep for the chicken w/ hot peppers chemically defused whatever it was about those peppers that was making Monroe sick each time. But each of those possibilities is pretty exotic, so it's very plausible that any meal he ate with those peppers would have had the same effect of making him sick.

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

    50% picked this

  3. If the next time Monroe

    Too Strong: will not

    We can't support anything about the unknown future. Maybe the next time Monroe eats an extra-large sausage pizza from Tip-Top, he's still recovering from a stomach flu and the pizza triggers a relapse. Maybe he will have just gotten off a roller-coaster. Maybe the sausage will be tainted that day. There are too many unknowns about a future eating experience to make a reliable prediction.

    21% picked this

  4. Before eating Tip-Top’s fried shrimp

    Out of Scope: before

    We have no support for the idea that Monroe has ever had fried shrimp prior to this 2nd meal. So we can't comment on what his fried shrimp-eating history has been like, if there even is a fried shrimp-eating history.

    10% picked this

  5. The only place Monroe has

    Too Strong: only

    We have no support for this harshly restrictive idea that Monroe has never had hot peppers outside of his meals at Tip-Top.

    4% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

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

Save and practice this skill
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