Unplugged Practice Test: Logical Reasoning Set 2, Question 17 (Role of the Statement)
Taking the test? Finish it first. This page shows the answer.
- Role questions ask what job a single claim does in the argument.
- Find the main conclusion first. Then ask whether the claim is that conclusion, supports it, or is a point the argument pushes back on.
- Every question on this test is original, written to the same logical skeletons as real questions, and Steve checked every one himself before release.
The question
Designer: In adventure games, the boss encounter has long stood for the single moment at which a player's skill is finally measured. Studios have lately taken to making these encounters skippable. That is a loss. The wider movement in game design toward letting players shape their own experience is welcome. But a game teaches only through resistance, and the boss encounter is the sharpest resistance a game has to offer.
17. In the designer's argument, the claim that the wider movement toward letting players shape their own experience is welcome plays which one of the following roles?
- (A)It supplies a general rule that the argument's conclusion is derived from.
- (B)It accounts for why the argument had to be offered in the first place.
- (C)It marks off how far the argument's conclusion is meant to extend.
- (D)It sets out a proposal that the argument goes on to reject.
- (E)It is the claim the argument is meant to establish.
CWhy (C) is correct
The designer grants that the wider movement letting players shape their own experience is welcome, then argues boss encounters shouldn't be skippable, since a game teaches only through resistance and the boss encounter is the sharpest resistance it has. That concession stops the conclusion from reading as a blanket complaint about players shaping their experience. It marks off the designer's target as this one case, skippable boss encounters, not the whole trend, which is what (C) describes.
Why the other answers are wrong
AWhy (A) is wrong
(A) treats the claim as a rule the conclusion is drawn from, but if anything it cuts against the conclusion, which is why the designer has to wall it off.
BWhy (B) is wrong
(B) would make the claim the reason the argument needed making, but it's a concession inside the argument, not a motive for giving it.
DWhy (D) is wrong
(D) casts the claim as a proposal the designer goes on to reject, yet the designer accepts it as true and argues around it.
EWhy (E) is wrong
(E) mistakes the claim for the conclusion, when the conclusion is that making boss encounters skippable is a loss.
Common questions
What type of question is this?
Role of the Statement. Role questions ask what job a single claim does in the argument.
How do I get better at Role of the Statement questions?
Find the main conclusion first. Then ask whether the claim is that conclusion, supports it, or is a point the argument pushes back on. The free LSAT cheat sheet lists the wrong-answer patterns to watch for on every type.
