Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT152 S4 Q21 Explanation

If you use a wood stove

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

TopicsMain Conclusion

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Stimulus

If you use a wood stove to heat your home, you should use a wood-pellet stove rather than a regular wood stove. Because wood pellets are made from by-products of manufacturing processes that would otherwise go to landfills, heating a home with a wood-pellet stove will not cause more trees to be wood-pellet stoves are better for the environment than are regular wood stoves.

What this question is testing

Main Conclusion

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence 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
21.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the overall conclusion drawn

Answer choices

  1. Premise1% picked this

    Wood pellets are made from waste products of manufacturing processes that would otherwise

    This is at the bottom of our hierarchy. No support was provided for this claim. This claim was used as support for one of the Intermediate Conclusions, that heating a home with wood-pellet won't necessitate cutting down more trees.

  2. Intermediate Conclusion25% picked this

    Heating a home with a wood-pellet stove is better for the environment than is heating a home with

    This is the reason (i.e. the support) for the first sentence, so the first sentence is the Main Conclusion. Why should we use wood-pellets rather than regular? because, wood-pellet is better for the environment.

  3. Intermediate Conclusion1% picked this

    Using a wood-pellet stove to heat one’s home does not cause trees

    This idea is support for the notion that wood-pellet stoves are better for the environment than are regular wood stoves, which in turn is support for the Main Conclusion in the first sentence.

  4. Premise1% picked this

    Using a regular wood stove to heat one’s home causes trees

    This is the second to last sentence. Given that the last sentence draws a conclusion based on this sentence (indicated by "So"), there's no way this second to last sentence could be the Main Conclusion.

  5. Correct73% picked this

    People who use wood stoves to heat their homes should use wood-pellet stoves instead of

    Why this is right

    Here's an answer choice that replicates the meaning of the first sentence. This is an opinion from the author, and it's supported by the rest of the paragraph. We should use wood-pellet, because they're more environmentally friendly, because they don't force us to cut down more trees, because wood-pellets are made from by-products of manufacturing that would otherwise end up in landfills.

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

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