Unplugged Practice Test: Logical Reasoning Set 3, Question 18 (Method of Reasoning)
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- Method questions ask how the argument is built, not whether it works.
- Predict what a correct answer needs to do before you read the choices.
- 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
Some ceramics scholars treat a surviving notebook of glaze formulas from a provincial kiln as a dependable record of how potters across that region finished their wares. Because hardly any other such notebooks from the period have come down to us, that treatment moves much too fast. The notebook may have been thoroughly unlike ordinary practice, in the way that the formula books kept by several of today's most celebrated studio potters are.
18. Which one of the following most accurately describes how the argument proceeds?
- (A)It disputes what some scholars hold by offering a present-day parallel said to tell against their view.
- (B)It turns down what some scholars hold merely because too little evidence stands behind it.
- (C)It backs what some scholars hold by offering a present-day parallel to their view.
- (D)It turns a view some scholars hold into a claim about present-day practice.
- (E)It props up a claim that the past resembles the present by setting a scholarly conclusion beside a present-day parallel.
AWhy (A) is correct
Treating the provincial notebook as a dependable record of regional practice moves too fast, the argument says, and it backs that with a present-day case: the formula books some celebrated studio potters keep today, which are anything but typical of ordinary practice. That's a present-day parallel used to push back on the scholars' reading, which is exactly what (A) describes.
Why the other answers are wrong
BWhy (B) is wrong
(B) misses that a specific reason grounds the pushback, the modern parallel, rather than a bare complaint that too little evidence backs the scholars.
CWhy (C) is wrong
(C) has the direction backward: the modern parallel is used against the scholars' reading, not to support it.
DWhy (D) is wrong
(D) mistakes the analogy's role: today's potters are the tool used to question the scholars, not a claim the argument is trying to establish about current practice.
EWhy (E) is wrong
(E) misreads the goal: the parallel is aimed at undercutting the scholars, not at proving that past and present resemble each other.
Common questions
What type of question is this?
Method of Reasoning. Method questions ask how the argument is built, not whether it works.
How do I get better at Method of Reasoning questions?
Predict the answer before reading the choices. The free LSAT cheat sheet lists the wrong-answer patterns to watch for on every type.
