Logical Reasoning

PT151 · S4 · Q5 Heavy tapestry fabrics

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

Heavy tapestry fabrics are appropriate only for use in applications that will not need to be laundered frequently.

Statements

conditional (only = right side)

heavy tapestry → don't need to be appropriate laundered frequently

need to be → heavy tapestry laundered frequently not appropriate

contrast

Swags / balloon valances (which are types of window treatments) do not need to be laundered frequently.

All clothing does need to be laundered frequently.

Evaluate

Whenever we're given a conditional statement in an Inference stimulus, we ask ourselves two questions: 1. are there any other conditionals present that I can chain this up with? 2. are there any facts present to which I can apply this rule? (usually via the contrapositive)

We got a conditional in the first sentence: heavy tapestry → doesn't need to be fabric appropriate laundered frequently

If we wanted to, we could turn the two claims in the second sentence into conditionals:

clothing → does need frequent laundering

swags or → does not need freq. laundering balloon valance

Can we chain those together with the original? The overlapping concept is whether or not something needs to be laundered frequently. We often need to contrapose the rule in order to see how it chains or applies.

When we look at the contrapositive, Don't need to be → heavy tapestry laundered frequently not appropriate

we can see that it could chain up with the Clothing conditional.

does need heavy Clothing → frequent → tapestry laundering inappropriate

Goal

Let's look for an answer like .

5.

Which one of the following statements is most supported by the information above?

  1. If a fabric is not

    Unsupported Trigger

    The first sentence gives us a conditional that says, If a fabric is a heavy tapestry, then only appropriate for stuff that's infrequently laundered. We weren't given any rule for what's true if a fabric is not a heavy tapestry, so there's no way we can derive an outcome about that.

    2% picked this

  2. Heavy tapestry fabrics should not

    Bad Trigger Match

    We have a rule that says, needs to be heavy tapestry laundered frequently → fabrics should not be used This answer is saying it's not swags and heavy tapestry not balloon valances → fabrics should not be used Can we say that, "If it's not a swag or a balloon valance, then it needs to be laundered frequently"? No, we can't say that. There might be other things besides swags and balloon valances that don't need to be laundered frequently. To put this another way, the paragraph has communicated to us that it's conceivably appropriate to use heavy tapestry fabrics if you're making swags or balloon valances. But they never told us that those are the only two cases in which heavy tapestry fabrics would be okay, and the answer is saying these are the only two cases.

    3% picked this

  3. If heavy tapestry fabrics are

    Unsupported Outcome

    The first sentence gives us a conditional that says, If a heavy tapestry fabric is appropriate, then doesn't need to be frequently laundered. In order for this answer to be derivable, we'd need to think that, "If it doesn't need to be frequently laundered, then it must be a window treatment". Is that something we know? No, just like (B) this is too strong. We were told that window treatments don't need to be frequently laundered, but this answer is acting like window treatments are the only thing that doesn't need to be frequently laundered.

    5% picked this

  4. Correct

    If a fabric is appropriate

    Why this is right

    This is what we were predicting, although it's certainly worded in the weirdest way they could think of. We wanted "heavy tapestry is not appropriate for clothing (such as skirts or jackets). By contrapositive, this is saying Fabric is heavy → not appropriate for tapestry skirt or jacket We know from the first sentence that Fabric is heavy → not appropriate for tapestry stuff that needs to be laundered frequently Can we say that skirts and jackets need to be laundered frequently? Yes, we were told that no type of clothing belongs to the category of "doesn't need to be laundered frequently", which means that all types of clothing belong to the category of "does need to be laundered frequently". Again, we were able to build this chain: Clothing does need heavy (such as skirt → frequent → tapestry not or jacket) laundering appropriate By contrapositive, heavy does not not clothing tapestry is → need freq. → (such as skirt appropriate laundering or jacket)

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

    86% picked this

  5. Heavy tapestry fabrics are sometimes

    Contradicted

    Since all clothing needs to be laundered frequently, heavy tapestry fabrics would be inappropriate for all clothing.

    3% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

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