Logical Reasoning

PT151 · S4 · Q2 A company decided to scan

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

A company decided to scan all of its salespersons' important work that existed only in paper form into a central computer database that could be easily accessed using portable computers, thereby saving salespersons the effort of lugging their paper files all over the country.

Given that...

The salespersons' important work in the central computer database could be easily accessed using portable computers, thereby saving salespersons the effort of lugging their paper files all over the country.

How can it be that...

Salespersons rarely accessed the database and continued to rely on many paper files, which they had refused to turn over to the staff responsible for creating the database.

Evaluate

The stimulus compares the potential benefits of this project to the actual outcome. It seems like scanning the paper documents into a central database would make it easier for the salespersons to do their job. Why didn't they use the database? And why did they refuse to turn paper files over to the staff responsible for creating the database?

The second question seems like the more important one. An answer to that question could very possibly answer the first question as well. The salespersons might have refused to turn over the files for any number of reasons, but we can imagine a couple of possibilities.

Maybe there was some kind of office drama going on, and for some reason the salespersons didn't trust the people who were creating the database.

Maybe the salespersons were worried about their work being automated. Or perhaps they thought that having their important paperwork in a database would make it easier for the company to replace them with other salespersons.

Or maybe these files were so important to the salespersons that they just worried about the files being lost.

Goal

Expect a correct answer to focus on the salesperson's refusal to turn over their important files. At the same time, we need to keep an open mind. It's very possible for an answer to suggest something that we haven't thought of. Beware of answers that ignore important aspects of the situation which need to be explained.

2.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to account for the failure described above?

  1. Some of the salespersons gave

    No Impact Cheats Paradox

    Without more information, this doesn't explain why the salespersons rarely accessed the files. We would need to imagine quite a few details in order for this to have any impact. And it doesn't explain why salespersons refused to surrender their paper files.

    2% picked this

  2. Most of the salespersons already

    Opposite (if anything)

    If anything, this only deepens the mystery. If most of the salespersons were not already using personal computers before this project started, that might lead to an explanation for why they didn't use the database. Maybe they were technophobes who were reluctant to use new computers or just didn't want to change their way of doing things. The answer choice doesn't actually state any of this, so we could argue that this simply adds details without explaining the situation. But if this did have an impact on the story, it could very easily be the opposite of what we want.

    1% picked this

  3. Correct

    The papers that the salespersons

    Why this is right

    This isn't one of the exact explanations that we anticipated, but it's very similar. It provides a reason for the salesperson's refusal to turn files over to the people creating the database.

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

    96% picked this

  4. All of the salespersons were

    Opposite (if anything)

    If many of the salespersons found the software easy to use, that would seem to add to the list of reasons why we would expect them to use it. This is the opposite of what we want an answer to do. It doesn't explain why the salespersons didn't use the database.

    1% picked this

  5. The number of staff required

    Cheats Paradox Thin Ice

    This answer is trying to trick us into imagining that it took much longer than expected to scan the files into the database, and that's why the salespersons rarely accessed the database. But this would be adding a lot of detail that isn't actually stated in this answer choice. This answer also doesn't explain why salespersons refused to hand over files.

    0% 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