Logical Reasoning

PT17 · S2 · Q19 Dillworth: More and more people are deciding

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

Dillworth: More and more people are deciding not to have children because of the personal and economic sacrifices children require and because so often children are ungrateful for the considerable sacrifices their parents do make for them.

Dillworth's Conclusion

For anyone with deeply held values, it would probably be a mistake to avoid having kids because kids require sacrifice and express little gratitude.

Dillworth's Evidence

Children provide the best chance most people have of ensuring that their values live on after them.

Travers' Rebuttal

Children are usually ungrateful because they have wholly rejected parental values.

Evaluate

It looks like Travers is contradicting Dillworth's premise that children provide the best chance most people have of ensuring that their values live on after them.

How could children pass on the values of their parents if they usually reject their parents' values wholesale (i.e. completely)?

Goal

Let's look for something like, .

19.

The point of Travers’ rejoinder to Dillworth’s argument is that

  1. Dillworth’s assumption that children acquire

    Too Strong: only

    Dillworth never said that children acquire values only from parents. He just said that parents best chance of passing on their values is via their children.

    11% picked this

  2. it is a mistake to

    Out of Scope: dismiss as irrelevant

    Nothing Travers says sounds like, "Dillworth, you can't just dismiss the personal and economic sacrifices parents have to make for their children. They're not irrelevant!" Dillworth was never dismissing them. In his first sentence he acknowledges that these sacrifices are "considerable". He was saying they have no bearing on the fact that kids represent the best chance to pass on values. They're irrelevant to "the fact" that kids are the best contenders for passing on values. At any rate, Travers isn't even discussing the sacrifices. He's taking issue with the claim that kids will pass on parents' values.

    3% picked this

  3. Dillworth has overlooked the well-known

    Bad Objection Match

    This answer is about 'values', as was Travers' rebuttal, so it's worth trying to figure out what this is saying. It's saying that people with deeply held values (such as the potential parents that Dillworth is addressing in his conclusion) frequently reject opposing values deeply held by others. That's not quite a match for the idea that kids (who may or may not have deeply held values) will reject the values of their parents (which may or may not be opposing).

    11% picked this

  4. the desire to perpetuate their

    Wrong Objection Too Strong

    Wrong Objection Too Strong: shouldn't be a factor Travers isn't saying that "perpetuating values" shouldn't be a factor in the decision to have children. That's a very extreme position, and we can't derive that from Travers' one sentence. He's saying that Dillworth has it wrong in terms of whether children are likely to perpetuate their parents' values. Dillworth was saying that children are the best chance for passing on values, and Travers is saying, "That's not true -- when children are ungrateful for the sacrifices that their parents make (which is typical), it's because they've completely rejected their parents' values."

    11% picked this

  5. Correct

    the fact that children are

    Why this is right

    This is similar to (D) but more limited in wording, and thus easier to justify as a match. Travers is showing that "children's ungratefulness" is relevant to deciding whether to have kids as a way of perpetuating your values. Dillworth actually said that "the fact that children are often grateful for the considerable sacrifices their parents make has no bearing on the fact that kids provide the best chance to ensure that the parents' value outlive them." Travers is saying, "No the ungratefulness DOES have some bearing on that. Children's ingratitude usually is caused by the fact that the kids have completely rejected the parents' values." In other words, Travers is saying, "Dillworth, you're right that kids are often ungrateful, but that doesn't mean that some adults should have kids anyway because at least the kids will pass on the parents' values -- after all, when kids are ungrateful it's because they've already rejected their parents' values (and thus won't be passing them onto future generations)."

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

    64% 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