Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT9 S4 Q21 Explanation

Of every 100 burglar alarms

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

TopicsPrinciple-Strengthen

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Stimulus

Of every 100 burglar alarms police answer, 99 are false alarms. This situation causes an enormous and dangerous drain on increasingly scarce public resources. Each false alarm wastes an average of 45 minutes of police time. As a result police are consistently taken away from responding to other legitimate calls for service, owners the cost of 45 minutes of police time for each false alarm their systems generate.

What this question is testing

Principle-Strengthen

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
21.

On the basis of the premises advanced, which one of the following principles, if established, would provide the most justification

Answer choices

  1. Trap0% picked this

    No segment of a community should be permitted to engage in a practice that has been shown to result in a disproportionate share of

  2. Trap3% picked this

    When public resources are in short supply, any individual who wants special services from public agencies such as police and fire departments should be

  3. Trap1% picked this

    Police departments are not justified in improving service to one segment of the community at the expense of other segments of the community unless

  4. Trap8% picked this

    Anyone who directly benefits from a service provided by public employees should be required to reimburse the general public fund an amount equivalent to

  5. Correct88% picked this

    If receipt of a service results in the waste of scarce public resources and people with other legitimate needs are disadvantaged in consequence, the

    Why this is right

    Answer E is correct.

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

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