Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT148 S4 Q14 ExplanationPrinciple: A government should reduce taxes

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

TopicsPrinciple-Strengthen

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Stimulus

Principle: A government should reduce taxes on imports if doing so would financially benefit many consumers in its domestic economy. There is a notable exception, however: it should never reduce import taxes if one or be significantly harmed by the added competition.

Conclusion: The government should not reduce taxes on

What this question is testing

Principle-Strengthen

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
14.

Which one of the following is a statement from which the conclusion can be properly drawn

Answer choices, explained

  1. Negation7% picked this

    Reducing taxes on textile imports would not financially benefit many consumers in

    ~FBC → ~RTI This answer would only connect the principle to the conclusion if we use an illegal negation of the first part of the principle.

  2. Unrelated to Goal Opposite6% picked this

    Reducing taxes on textile imports would financially benefit some consumers in the domestic economy but would not benefit

    An action that does not benefit an industry is not the same as one that harms the industry. And this answer doesn't mention added competition. It's not triggering the exception that's mentioned in the principle. Also, strictly speaking, "many" is consistent with "some," so if anything this answer triggers the first part of the principle. It would lead us to conclude that the government should reduce the taxes.

  3. Trap2% picked this

    The domestic textile industry faces significant competition in many of its

    Unrelated to Goal Out of Scope: export markets This does not tell us that the domestic textile industry will be harmed by these competitors if import taxes are reduced. It does not trigger the exception in the principle. And what happens in "export markets" is actually out of scope. We are not told how reducing import taxes would affect export markets.

  4. Out of Scope2% picked this

    The domestic textile industry and consumers in the domestic economy would benefit less from reductions in taxes on textile imports than

    Out of Scope: benefit less Out of Scope: other measures The principle only involves consumers benefitting from reduced import taxes. It does not involve any comparison between the benefits from reduced import taxes and the benefits from other measures. And a domestic industry benefitting less from something is not the same as it being harmed by something.

  5. Correct83% picked this

    The added competition produced by any reduction of taxes on imports would significantly harm the

    Why this is right

    This triggers the exception in the principle by stating that a reduction in import taxes would harm a domestic industry through added competition.

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

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