Logical Reasoning

PT151 · S2 · Q8 Normally, political candidates send out

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Normally, political candidates send out campaign material in order to influence popular opinion.

Conclusion

The ads sent recently for Ebsen's campaign were evidently testing the ads' potential to influence popular opinion.

Evidence

They were sent to too few households to be trying to actually influence popular opinion. Also, they covered a wide range of topics, and Ebsen's campaign has spent a bunch of money following up with recipients to gauge their effect.

Evaluate

This problem is a modern Bait n' Switch for all the LSAT students savvy enough to know that half the time on Main Conclusion questions, the Conclusion is found attached to some "but / yet / however" rebuttal.

We always need to verify our Conclusion pick by making sure it passes the Support Test. Does the 2nd sentence have support? why should we believe that? [crickets]

A supporting reason for that claim would sound something like, .

The opinion indicator "evidently" in the 3rd sentence is the one bone they're throwing us to help us find the Main Conclusion.

Why should we believe that

Because they covered a wide variety of topics and Ebsen's campaign spent lots of money following up with recipients to gauge the effect of the ads.

Goal

As always with Main Conclusion questions, the only hard part is finding the Conclusion. If we do that correctly, then picking the correct answer is a straightforward task of finding a meaning match.

So pick something that means the same thing as .

8.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the conclusion drawn in the argument above?

  1. Normally, political candidates send out

    Wrong Ingredient

    This is the 1st sentence (background). We want the 3rd.

    2% picked this

  2. The recent ads for Ebsen’s

    Wrong Ingredient

    This is the 2nd sentence (a premise that rules out a potential objection). We want the 3rd sentence.

    44% picked this

  3. Correct

    The recent ads for Ebsen’s

    Why this is right

    Yay, the 3rd sentence.

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

    53% picked this

  4. The recent ads for Ebsen’s

    Wrong Ingredient

    This is half of the last sentence (support for the Conclusion), but we wanted the 3rd sentence.

    0% picked this

  5. Ebsen’s campaign has been spending

    Wrong Ingredient

    This is half of the last sentence (support for the Conclusion), but we wanted the 3rd sentence.

    1% picked this

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