Those who support the continued reading

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

TopicsFlaw

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Stimulus

Those who support the continued reading and performance of Shakespeare's plays maintain that in England appreciation for his work has always extended beyond educated elites and that ever since Shakespeare's own time his plays have always been known and loved by comparatively uneducated people. Skepticism about this claim is borne out by must have been far beyond the reach of people of ordinary means.

What this question is testing

Flaw

Your task

Describe the reasoning error the argument actually commits.

Common trap

Answers that name a real logical flaw the argument doesn't actually make.

Winning move

Articulate the gap in the reasoning yourself, then match it to the choice that describes that 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

Which one of the following describes a reasoning error in

Answer choices

Trap2% picked this
The argument uses the popularity of Shakespeare’s plays as a measure of
2%
Trap3% picked this
The argument bases an aesthetic conclusion about Shakespeare’s plays on purely
3%
Trap4% picked this
The argument anachronistically uses the standards of the twentieth century to judge events that occurred in
4%
Trap10% picked this
The argument judges the literary quality of a book’s text on the basis of the quality of the volume in
10%
Correct81% picked this
The argument does not allow for the possibility that people might know Shakespeare’s plays without
Why this is right
Answer E is correct.
Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
81%

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