Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT2 S2 Q13 Explanation

If retail stores experience a decrease

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

TopicsMust be True

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Stimulus

If retail stores experience a decrease in revenues during this holiday season, then either attitudes toward extravagant gift-giving have changed or prices have risen beyond the level most people can afford. If attitudes have changed, then we all have something to celebrate this season. If prices have risen beyond the level most have not kept pace with rising prices during the past year.

What this question is testing

Must be True

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
13.

Assume the premises above to be true. If salaries have kept pace with rising prices during the past year, which one of the

Answer choices

  1. Untriggered Conditional16% picked this

    Attitudes toward extravagant gift-giving have

    We would only know this if we had been told that revenues were decreasing.

  2. Too Strong7% picked this

    Retail stores will not experience a decrease in retail sales during

    It's possible that there's been a decrease in revenue, as long as attitudes towards extravagant gifts have changed.

  3. Correct68% picked this

    Prices in retail stores have not risen beyond the level that most people can afford

    Why this is right

    The new fact in the question stem triggers the contrapositive of the final sentence of the stimulus, yielding this idea.

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

  4. Too Strong5% picked this

    Attitudes toward extravagant gift-giving have not changed, and stores will not experience a decrease in revenues

    We have no idea whether attitudes have changed or whether revenues have decreased. It's possible that both of those things happened.

  5. Untriggered Conditional4% picked this

    Either attitudes toward extravagant gift-giving have changed or prices have risen beyond the level that most people can

    We would only know this if we had been told that revenues were decreasing.

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