bessette

to andrewcan,

which question do you mean? NO.20?

bessette

有碰到几道让人费解的题?

LSAT t8-s4-21
Jane: Professor Harper's ideas for modifying the design of guitars are of no value because there is no general agreement among musicians as to what a guitar should sound like and. Consequently, no widely accepted basis for evaluating the merits of a guitar's sound.

Mark: What's more, Harper's ideas have had enough time to be adopted if they really resulted in superior sound. It took only ten years for the Torres design for guitars to be almost universally adopted because of the improvement it makes in tonal quality.

Which one of the following most accurately describes the relationship between Jane's argument and Mark's argument?

(A) Mark's argument shows how a weakness in Jane's argument can be overcome.

(B) Mark's argument has a premise in common with Jane's argument

(C) Mark and Jane use similar techniques to argue for different conclusions.

(D) Mark's argument restates Jane's argument in other terms.

(E) Mark's argument and Jane's argument are based on conflicting suppositions.

我不知道conflicting suppositions在题中具体指那两个suppositions?

8. In Malsenia sales of classical records are soaring. The buyers responsible for this boom are quite new to classical music and were drawn to it either by classical scores from television commercials or by theme tunes introducing major sports events on television. Audiences at classical concerts, however, are continually shrinking in Malsenia. It can be concluded from this that the new Malsenian converts to classical music, having initially experienced this music as recorded music, are most comfortable with classical music as recorded music and really have no desire to hear live performances.

The argument assumes which one of the following?

(A) To sell well in Malsenia, a classical record must include at least one piece familiar from television.

(B) At least some of the new Malsenian buyers of classical records have available to them the opinion of attending classical concerts.

(C) The number of classical concerts performed in Malsenia has not decreased in response to smaller audiences.

(D) The classical records available in Malsenia are, for the most part, not recordings of actual public concerts.

(E) Classical concerts in Malsenia are not limited to music that is readily available on recordings.

我感觉答案应该在D和E中,但却是C,  ???

9. Brain scans of people exposed to certain neurotoxins reveal brain damage identical to that found in people suffering from Parkinson's disease. This fact shows not only that these neurotoxins cause this type of brain damage, but also that the brain damage itself causes Parkinson's disease. Thus brain scans can be used to determine who is likely to develop Parkinson's disease.

The argument contains which one of the following reasoning errors?

(A) It fails to establish that other methods that can be used to diagnose Parkinson's disease are less accurate than brain scans.

(B) It overestimates the importance of early diagnosis in determining appropriate treatments for people suffering from Parkinson's disease.

(C) It mistakes a correlation between the type of brain damage described and Parkinson's disease for a causal relation between the two.

(D) It assumes that people would want to know as early as possible whether they were likely to develop Parkinson's disease.

{E} It neglects to specify how the information provided by brain scans could be used either in treating Parkinson's disease or in monitoring the progression of the disease.

我选的C, 答案是B,但B和原文好像没有什么关系啊?

望赐教!!!谢谢!

zyh79

to bessette：
8-1-19，20： 雨云O18含量少，但落下雨水O18含量高，所以科学认为O18重。但又发现Amazon forests上空雨云的O18含量不变。
解释：每片雨云的O18含量不变与O18重（落下雨水O18含量高）的矛盾。
我的理解：
1。18含量不变，是针对Amazon forests上空的云而言
2。云的运动轨迹应该是落完雨的云就飘走了，而当地不断补充新云，保持住云中O18含量不变，动态平衡。
20题由第二句话即可推出。

10。人们对于说他们自己并不是评判自己真实所需的权威这样一个论调感到很愤怒。
    但其实，要真正获得这种自我意识并非易事，要付出艰辛的努力。
    人们又偷懒，无意识的想要社会认为他们应该要的。
    言外之意，人们还是不知道自己的真实所需。

zyh79

to bessette：
t8-s4-21：J的假定是Harper能做，但没价值
          M的假定是做都很难做成。

8：听音乐会的人少了，得到人们对音乐会不感兴趣的结论
假设：音乐会本身的数目没减少。排除它因

9：个人觉得答案有误，虽然还没见错题
  B答案中提到的treatments for people suffering from Parkinson's disease文中只字未提
  C答案正确。

bessette

to zyh79,

非常感谢!

t8-s4-9, 我也觉得答案有问题,也选的C;
t8-s1-19, "动态平衡"一语中的!! 但我觉得"但又发现Amazon forests上空雨云的O18含量不变" 如果改成" 在Atlantic Ocean上形成的雨云中O18的含量和Amazon Forest上的雨云的含量保持不便" 更确切.

再次感谢zyh79的精炼题解!! 我的逻辑还有很多地方要你指导.

bessette

to zyh79, t9-15

Economist: Some policymakers believe that our country’s continued economic growth requires a higher level of personal savings than we currently have. A recent legislative proposal would allow individuals to set up savings accounts in which interest earned would be exempt from taxes until money is withdrawn from the account. Backers of this proposal claim that its implementation would increase the amount of money available for banks to loan at a relatively small cost to the government in lost tax revenues. Yet, when similar tax-incentive programs were tried in the past, virtually all of the money invested through them was diverted from other personal savings, and the overall level of personal savings was unchanged.

14. The passage as a whole provides the most support for which one of the following conclusions?

15. The author criticizes the proposed tax-incentive program by

(A) challenging a premise on which the proposal is based

(B) pointing out a disagreement among policymakers

(C) demonstrating that the proposal’s implementation is not feasible

(D) questioning the judgment of the proposal’s backers by citing past cases in which they had advocated programs that have proved ineffective

(E) disputing the assumption that a program to encourage personal savings is needed

答案是A,但我不知道这里的premise到底作何解释? 假设?前提条件? 如果是假设,具体指什么? 谢谢!

zyh79

作前提讲，意思是“减税能增加储蓄”，作者说减税不能增加储蓄。

bessette

to zyh79,

那么"Backers of this proposal claim that its implementation would increase the amount of money available for banks to loan at a relatively small cost to the government in lost tax revenues."只不过指出了减税计划的另一个好处:使得政府能以较低的成本获得银行贷款来弥补税收的流失"?

zyh79

可以这么认为。

bessette

t9-s4-8
8. The director of a secondary school where many students were having severe academic problems impaneled a committee to study the matter. The committee reported that these students were having academic problems because they spent large amounts of time on school sports and too little time studying. The director then prohibited all students who were having academic problems from taking part in sports in which they were active. He stated that this would ensure that such students would do well academically.

The reasoning on which the director bases his statement is not sound because he fails to establish that

(A) some students who spend time on sports do not have academic problems

(B) all students who do well academically do so because of time saved by not participating in sports

(C) at least some of the time the students will save by not participating in sports will be spent on solving their academic problems

(D) no students who do well academically spend time on sports

(E) the quality of the school’s sports program would not suffer as a result of the ban

这题我选B,答案C,
我觉得B比C好,理由如下:因为"He stated that this would ensure that such students would do well academically.",既然是要."ensure",那如果主任给出"所有的好学生都是因为放弃了参加体育运动才学习好的",也就是not participate =>do well academically, so if the director establishes the evidence above, then "prohibit=not participate => do well academically"。 而C光说“由于不参加体育运动节省下来的时间，至少有一部分是用于解决学习问题的”，那我完全有理由反驳说，即使有一部分时间用于解决学习问题，那也不能ensure that such students will do well academically，可能他们本来脑子就有问题、笨呢。

21
So-called environmentalists have argued that the proposed Golden Lake Development would interfere with bird-migration patterns. However, the fact that these same people have raised environmental objections to virtually every development proposal brought before the council in recent years indicates that their expressed concern for bird-migration patterns is nothing but a mask for their antidevelopment, antiprogress agenda. Their claim, therefore, should be dismissed without further consideration.

21. For the claim that the concern expressed by the so-called environmentalists is not their real concern to be properly drawn on the basis of the evidence cited, which one of the following must be assumed?

(A) Not every development proposal opposed in recent years by these so-called environmentalists was opposed because they believed it to pose a threat to the environment

(B) People whose real agenda is to block development wherever it is proposed always try to disguise their true motives.

(C) Anyone who opposes unrestricted development is an opponent of progress.

(D) The council has no reason to object to the proposed Golden Lake Development other than concern about the development’s effect on bird-migration patterns.

(E) When people say that they oppose a development project solely on environmental grounds, their real concern almost always lies elsewhere.

这题我选D，答案A，刚开始我就是在A、D间徘徊，我总觉得A的表达怪怪的，但如果作者不assume的话，the claim that the concern expressed by the so-called environmentalists is not their real concern 就不一定能得出吗？我疑惑！

23
23. Sabina: The words used in expressing facts affect neither the facts nor the conclusions those facts will support. Moreover, if the words are clearly defined and consistently used, the actual words chosen make no difference to an argument’s soundness. Thus, how an argument is expressed can have no bearing on whether it is a good argument.

Emile: Badly chosen words can make even the soundest argument a poor one. After all, many words have social and political connotations that influence people’s response to claims expressed in those words, regardless of how carefully and explicitly those words are defined. Since whether people will acknowledge a fact is affected by how the fact is expressed, the conclusions they actually draw are also affected.

The point at issue between Emile and Sabina is whether

(A) defining words in one way rather than another can alter either the facts or the conclusions the facts will justify

(B) a word can be defined without taking into account its social and political connotations

(C) a sound argument in support of a given conclusion is a better argument than any unsound argument for that same conclusion

(D) it would be a good policy to avoid using words that are likely to lead people either to misunderstand the claims being made or to reason badly about those claims

(E) a factor that affects neither the truth of an argument’s premises nor the logical relation between its premises and its conclusion can cause an argument to be a bad one

这题的答案E比较特别，因为答案没有直接说the factor是什么，而是用排除其他factors的方法来间接表达，我不确定我的判断，E是不是说，他们争论的焦点就是“用词问题是否会影响论证的有效性”？

谢谢！