Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT21 S2 Q1 Explanation

When politicians resort to personal

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

TopicsMain Conclusion

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Stimulus

When politicians resort to personal attacks, many editorialists criticize these attacks but most voters pay them scant attention. Everyone knows such attacks will end after election day, and politicians can be excused for mudslinging. Political commentators, however, cannot be. Political commentators should be engaged in sustained and serious debate about ideas and not to beat those opponents but to cut off the debate.

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
1.

Which one of the following most accurately states the main point of

Answer choices

  1. Unstated4% picked this

    Personal attacks on opponents serve a useful purpose

    The paragraph never said this, so it can't be the conclusion. When the author says "politicians can be excused for mudslinging", we might think about what someone who believes that would be assuming. And it seems likely that an author excusing mudslinging amongst politicians would concede that personal attacks serve a useful purpose. But who cares. Our job isn't to be deriving invisible claims. This is Main Conclusion. Find the visible claim that is the conclusion and pick an answer that matches.

  2. Correct87% picked this

    Political commentators should not resort to personal attacks on

    Why this is right

    This is the closest meaning match we get to, "political commentators cannot be excused for personal attacks / mudslinging". If we say, "Jeff, you cannot be excused for breaking up with Tony via text", then we're saying "Jeff, you should not have broken up with Tony via text".

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

  3. Unstated2% picked this

    Editorialists are right to criticize politicians who resort to personal attacks

    The paragraph never said this, so it can't be the conclusion. If anything, our author seems to condone politicians who resort to personal attacks, but we shouldn't even be giving this two seconds of thought. Our conclusion is about political commentators, not about editorialists or politicians.

  4. Unstated6% picked this

    The purpose of serious debate about ideas and policies is to counteract the effect of

    The paragraph never said this, so it can't be the conclusion. This is just tossing a word salad with language from the 4th and 1st sentences. The fact that this isn't about political commentators immediately means this can't be our conclusion.

  5. Unstated1% picked this

    Voters should be concerned about the personal attacks politicians make on

    The paragraph never said this, so it can't be the conclusion. If anything, our author seems to condone politicians who resort to personal attacks, but we shouldn't even be giving this two seconds of thought. Our conclusion is about political commentators, not about editorialists or politicians.

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