Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT154 S4 Q14 Explanation

People's antagonism to development

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

TopicsNecessary Assumption

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Stimulus

People’s antagonism to development in their neighborhoods can be harmful to a city. For example, nightclubs tend to be unpopular with neighbors because of the late hours they keep. So if neighborhoods are city will never get new nightclubs.

What this question is testing

Necessary Assumption

Your task

Find the assumption the argument requires in order for its conclusion to hold.

Common trap

Answers that would help the argument but aren't strictly required (sufficient, not necessary).

Winning move

Negate each choice — the right one breaks the argument when negated.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
14.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by

Answer choices

  1. Illegal Opposite Too Strong: usually5% picked this

    New nightclubs would usually be approved if the decision whether to approve was made at

    This is doing the classic "flip the illegal lightswitch" move that's so common in Necessary Assumption trap answers. If the paragraph says "black lives matter", the answer will say the author is assuming "non-black lives don't matter". Here, the paragraph said "if decision is made by neighborhoods, no new nightclubs will be approved", so this answer is incorrectly saying that the author assumes "if decision is not made by neighborhoods, new nightclubs will be approved". We can also pick at the quantifier "usually", which means "most of the time". The word/concept most is wrong on Necessary Assumption 99% of the time we see it. Does the author really need to assume that cities would approve new nightclubs at least 51% of the time? Would it make any difference if it was only 49% of the time? Of course not.

  2. Too Strong: all / equally13% picked this

    All neighborhoods in a city are equally opposed to getting

    There's no reason the author needs to commit to this insanely extreme claim that every single neighborhood is identically opposed to new nightclubs. If there were slight variation in how strongly they were opposed, would that hurt the argument? Of course not. As long as they're opposed, it doesn't matter how much they're opposed.

  3. Correct70% picked this

    It is a bad thing for a city if the city never

    Why this is right

    This just connects the evidence, "People's antagonism towards nightclubs would prevent new nightclubs from being developed" to the conclusion "People's antagonism towards development can be harmful to a city". The author is claiming that being anti-development leads to harm. The only anti-development example is preventing new nightclubs. So the author must be assuming that preventing new nightclubs can harm a city. If we negated this answer and said, "Hey, author --- if a city never gets any new nightclubs. that's not a bad thing", then she would no longer have any support for her conclusion that "anti-development can be harmful to a city."

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

  4. Illegal Opposite1% picked this

    Restaurants that do not keep late hours are rarely unpopular

    This is doing the classic "flip the illegal lightswitch" move that's so common in Necessary Assumption trap answers. If the paragraph says "the boys on the chess team like to dance", a trap answer will say the author is assuming that "boys on other teams don't like to dance" or assuming that "the girls on the chess team don't like to dance". Here, the paragraph said "nightclubs tend to be unpopular because of their late hours", so this answer is incorrectly saying that the author assumes "restaurants tend to be popular because of their non-late hours". If we negated this and said that, "Restaurants that don't stay open super late are nonetheless usually unpopular with neighbors", that would hurt the argument. If anything, it might help the author's argument that people's antipathy towards development can be harmful to the city.

  5. Too Strong11% picked this

    New nightclubs invariably produce some benefits for the neighborhoods in which

    Too Strong: invariably City benefit vs. Neighborhood benefit The conclusion is soft, saying that antagonism towards development can be harmful to a city. The author is assuming that if we never get new nightclubs, that would be harmful. That's different from assuming that every single new nightclub provides some benefit. If we negate this and say, "Hey, author --- there is at least one new nightclub that wouldn't produce benefit for the neighborhood in which it opens", that doesn't hurt the argument. The author could say, "Sure. In that instance, people's antagonism towards the development of that nightclub would be good for their neighborhood. But opposing all new nightclubs can still be harmful to the overall city."

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