Unplugged Practice Test: Logical Reasoning Set 3, Question 24 (Must Be True)
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The question
Patent analyst: All of Halvard Reese's sole-inventor filings describe mechanically novel devices, though few of those filings were ever licensed or cited by later applications. Reese produced no mechanically novel work at all until the final stretch of his career, and few of his sensor filings describe mechanically novel devices.
24. If all of the patent analyst's statements are true, which one of the following must also be true?
- (A)Most of Reese's filings that were never cited by later applications describe mechanically novel devices.
- (B)Few of the filings Reese made in the final stretch of his career are sensor filings.
- (C)Most, if not all, of Reese's sensor filings are not sole-inventor filings.
- (D)Most, if not all, of the filings Reese made in the final stretch of his career are sole-inventor filings.
- (E)Few or none of Reese's licensed filings describe mechanically novel devices.
CWhy (C) is correct
The categories chain through the shared trait. Every one of Reese's sole-inventor filings describes a mechanically novel device, but few of his sensor filings do, which means most sensor filings are not mechanically novel. Since every sole-inventor filing is mechanically novel, anything that mostly isn't mechanically novel mostly can't be a sole-inventor filing either, so most, if not all, of the sensor filings fall outside the sole-inventor group.
Why the other answers are wrong
AWhy (A) is wrong
(A) isn't forced: sole-inventor filings are all mechanically novel, but nothing pins down the novelty rate among filings that were never cited.
BWhy (B) is wrong
(B) isn't supported: the statements put Reese's novel work in the final stretch of his career, but not what share of that stretch was sensor work.
DWhy (D) is wrong
(D) isn't established: the final stretch is when novel filings appeared, but that doesn't fix whether those filings were sole-inventor work.
EWhy (E) is wrong
(E) isn't supported: the statements say only that few of the sole-inventor filings, all of which are mechanically novel, were ever licensed or cited, which doesn't fix what share of Reese's licensed filings describe mechanically novel devices.
Common questions
What type of question is this?
Must Be True. These questions ask what must be true given the statements.
How do I get better at Must Be True questions?
Predict the answer before reading the choices. The free LSAT cheat sheet lists the wrong-answer patterns to watch for on every type.
