Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT8 S1 Q17 Explanation

Jones: Prehistoric wooden tools found

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

TopicsAgree/Disagree

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Stimulus

Jones: Prehistoric wooden tools found in South America have been dated to 13,000 years ago. Although scientists attribute these tools to peoples whose ancestors first crossed into the Americas from Siberia to Alaska, this cannot be correct. In order to have reached a site so far south, these peoples must have been 13,000 years ago have been found anywhere between Alaska and South America.

Smith: Your evidence is inconclusive. Those tools were found in peat bogs, which are rare in the Americas. Wooden tools in soils other than within only a few years.

What this question is testing

Agree/Disagree

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
17.

The point at issue between Jones and

Answer choices

  1. Trap0% picked this

    whether all prehistoric tools that are 13,000 years or older were

  2. Correct63% picked this

    whether the scientists’ attribution of tools could be correct in light

    Why this is right

    Answer B is correct.

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

  3. Trap20% picked this

    whether the dating of the wooden tools by the scientists could

  4. Trap6% picked this

    how long ago the peoples who crossed into the Americas from Siberia to Alaska

  5. Trap10% picked this

    whether Smith’s evidence entails that the wooden tools have been

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