Logical Reasoning

PT149 · S3 · Q19 Business owner: Around Noon

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Business owner: Around noon in one section of the city, food trucks that sell lunch directly to customers on the sidewalk occupy many of the limited metered parking spaces available, thus worsening already bad traffic congestion.

Opposing Evidence

In one section of the city, food trucks occupy many of the limited metered parking spaces available, thus worsening already bad traffic congestion.

Evidence (since)

There is plenty of available parking and little traffic congestion in most areas of the city.

Conclusion

This bill [prohibiting food trucks from parking in metered spaces in any commercially zoned area] should be rejected.

Evaluate

"Thus" is usually a conclusion indicator, but it's not performing that function here. The second sentence in the argument describes a cause and effect relationship where the food trucks are causing traffic congestion.

It's important to recognize the recommendation in the final sentence—"this bill should be rejected." Recommendations like this almost always function as conclusions in LR arguments. And in this case, that recommendation acts more clearly as the conclusion of the argument than the statement about traffic congestion.

Food trucks parking in metered spots don't seem to be causing problems in most areas of the city. That seems like a decent reason to reject the proposed bill. But in LSAT LR, it's not enough for the link between the evidence and the conclusion to just be pretty good. We want to notice that the link between evidence and conclusion isn't airtight.

We could strengthen this argument by explicitly stating that, if problem caused by an activity does not affect most areas of the city, any bill which would prohibit that activity should be rejected.

Goal

Look for an answer which states a bill prohibiting an activity should be rejected if the activity does not cause problems in most areas. Beware of answers that bring in irrelevant details which don't actually impact the argument.

19.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the business owner's argument?

  1. Unless a business provides a

    Bad Evidence Match Bad Conclusion Match

    This answer choice would have the same meaning if it stated, "if a business does not provide a product or service that is valued by consumers then the business should not be allowed to make use of scarce city resources." The evidence does not state in any way that food trucks aren't providing a service that is valued by customers. And the argument does not conclude that food trucks should not be allowed to make use of city resources. We could call the metered parking spots "city resources," but the conclusion indicates that food trucks should be allowed to use those spaces.

    1% picked this

  2. If a serious problem exists

    Bad Conclusion Match

    By stating that the city government "should address the problem," this answer would support an argument which concludes that the city council should pass the bill. We want support the actual conclusion, which states that the bill should be rejected.

    1% picked this

  3. No proposed solution to a

    Bad Evidence Match

    This answer choice would have the same meaning if it stated, "if a problem has not been thoroughly studied then no proposed solution to the problem should be implemented." But the evidence in the argument states nothing about the problem not being thoroughly studied. We have no idea if the food truck problem has been thoroughly studied or not.

    2% picked this

  4. Correct

    A law that would disadvantage

    Why this is right

    This answer mentions disadvantaging "businesses of a certain type." That would refer to the food trucks in the argument. Food trucks throughout the city would be disadvantaged by a bill prohibiting them from parking in metered spaces in any commercially zoned area.

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

    95% picked this

  5. If a city has a

    Bad Evidence Match

    The idea of aggravating an existing problem doesn't match the evidence that we were given. The argument doesn't state that the bill prohibiting food trucks from parking in metered spaces would aggravate any existing problem. It seems like the bill would create a new problem for food trucks that are currently using the metered spaces.

    1% picked this

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