LSAC LSAT-TEST Online Practice Questions and Exam Preparation

LSAC LSAT-TEST Online Questions & Answers

• Question 321:

  Exactly seven toy-truck models ?F, G, H, J, K, M, and S ?are assembled on seven assembly lines, exactly one model to a line. The seven lines are arranged side by side and numbered consecutively F through 7. Assignment of models to

  lines must meet the following conditions:

  F is assembled on a lower-numbered line than J.

  M is assembled on the line numbered one lower than the line on which G is assembled.

  H is assembled on line 1 or else line 7.

  S is assembled on line 4.

  There can be at most how many lines between the line on which F is assembled and the line on which J is assembled?

  A. one
  B. two
  C. three
  D. four
  E. five
  D. four

  ---

  For this question, we are able to find the answer before we move on to the choices. We know that F must precede J, so let's just try out some scenarios, looking to place them as far away from each other as possible. If F is in 1, can J be in 7? No, because filling spaces 1 and 7 without H would violate Rule 3.With F in 1, can J be in 6? Sure, here's how:

  FMGSKJH 1234567

• Question 322:

  When the goalie has been chosen, the Smalltown Bluebirds hockey team has a starting

  lineup that is selected from two groups:

  First Group: John, Dexter, Bart, Erwin

  Second Group: Leanne, Roger, George, Marlene, Patricia

  When deciding on the players in the lineup, the coach considers the following requirements:

  Two players are always chosen from the first group, while three are chosen from the second group.

  George will only start if Bart also starts. Dexter and Bart will not start together.

  If George starts, Marlene won't start.

  The 4 fastest players are: John, Bart, George and Patricia 3 of the 4 fastest players will always be chosen.

  If Marlene is on the starting lineup, which of the following players will be the first group players who will also be starting?

  A. John
  B. John and Dexter
  C. John and Bart
  D. John, Dexter and Bart
  E. John, Erwin and Bart
  C. John and Bart

• Question 323:

  Yuriko: Our city's campaign to persuade parents to have their children vaccinated ought to be imitated by your city. In the 16 months since the enactment of legislation authorizing the campaign, vaccinations in our city have increased by 30 percent. Susan: But the major part of that increase occurred in the first 6 months after that legislation was enacted, right after your city's free neighborhood health clinics opened, and before the vaccination campaign really got going.

  In responding to Yuriko, Susan does which one of the following?

  A. She denies Yuriko's assumption that Susan's city wants to increase the vaccination rate for children.
  B. She cites facts that tend to weaken the force of the evidence with which Yuriko supports her recommendation.
  C. She introduces evidence to show that the campaign Yuriko advocates is only effective for a short period of time.
  D. She advances the claim that a campaign such as Yuriko recommends is not necessary because most parents already choose to have their children vaccinated.
  E. She presents evidence to suggest that vaccination campaigns are usually ineffective.
  B. She cites facts that tend to weaken the force of the evidence with which Yuriko supports her recommendation.

  ---

  We begin with a dialogue Method of Argument question, so we need to focus on how Susan responds. Yuriko recommends that Susan's city adopt her city's policy of talking parents into having their kids vaccinated because since making that a law, vaccinations have increased significantly. Not surprisingly, Susan's response begins with "But..." (you know, just once we'd like to see the respondent say "you're right; we'll do that!"--but we suppose that wouldn't make for much of a question), and Susan goes on to point out that most of that increase seems to be related to the opening of a free clinic and not so much to the vaccination campaign. So Susan essentially brings up a likely alternative cause of the increase that suggests that Yuriko's recommendation may not be so hot after all.

• Question 324:

  Chairperson: The board of directors of our corporation should not allow the incentives being offered by two foreign governments to entice us to expand our operations into their countries without further consideration of the issue. Although there is an opportunity to increase our profits by expanding our operations there, neither of these countries is politically stable.

  The chairperson's reasoning most closely conforms to which one of the following principles?

  A. A corporation should never expand operations into countries that are politically unstable.
  B. Corporations should expand operations into countries when there is a chance of increasing profits.
  C. Political stability is the most important consideration in deciding whether to expand operations into a country.
  D. Corporations should always be cautious about expanding operations into politically unstable countries.
  E. Boards of directors should always disregard governmental incentives when considering where to expand corporate operations.
  D. Corporations should always be cautious about expanding operations into politically unstable countries.

  ---

  This type of Principle question asks to which principle in the choices the argument most closely conforms, which means the right answer will be a general restatement of the argument's gist. The chairperson warns that the company shouldn't hastily gobble up the incentives to expand globally without giving the prospect more thought. Profits may rise, sure, but the countries in question are politically unstable. So the principle we seek will be a straightforward mirror of these elements, and will have to capture the proper tone, as well. Notice that the chairperson is not slamming the door on the opportunity or making any grand pronouncements on what should be done; she's merely, as D. puts it, advocating caution in this matter. The rest of option [Corporations should always be cautious about...] is perfectly in line with the situation; every term matches up. In contrast, all of the wrong choices go to extremes.

• Question 325:

  Editorial: This political party has repeatedly expressed the view that increasing spending on education is a worthy goal. On other occasions, however, the same party has claimed that the government should not increase spending on education. So this party's policy is clearly inconsistent.

  The argument in the editorial depends on assuming which one of the following?

  A. It is inconsistent for a legislator both to claim that increasing spending on education is a worthy goal and to vote against increasing spending on education.
  B. A consistent course of action in educational policy is usually the course of action that will reduce spending on education in the long run.
  C. Even if a goal is a morally good one, one should not necessarily try to achieve it.
  D. A consistent political policy does not hold that an action that comprises a worthy goal should not be performed.
  E. Members of one political party never have inconsistent views on how to best approach apolitical issue.
  D. A consistent political policy does not hold that an action that comprises a worthy goal should not be performed.

  ---

  Another Assumption question to chew on, and not surprisingly, there's a scope shift that needs to be cleared up before the conclusion that the party's policy is inconsistent is viable. Why the inconsistency, according to the editorialist? Because the party has said that increasing spending on education is a good thing, yet at other times has claimed that the government shouldn't increase education spending. But noting the worthiness of a cause and suggesting it be acted upon are two different things; it's possible that despite thinking that the cause is worthy, other considerations cause the party to claim the government shouldn't do anything about it. In order for these positions to be truly inconsistent, as the editorialist contends, we need a more precise definition of inconsistency that shows these two positions to be mutually exclusive. Option [A consistent political policy does not hold that...] accomplishes this, by implying that a political policy is not consistent if it holds that a worthy action should not be done. The editorialist doesn't actually say this, but must assume this is the case in order for the conclusion to stand. If you weren't able to prephrase this answer, don't fret -- this was a tough one. But hopefully you saw the merits of option [A consistent political policy does not hold that...]. When you got to it, or even confirmed it using the Denial Test (see second bullet point below).

• Question 326:

  Tribal communities in North America believe that their traditional languages are valuable resources that must be maintained. However, these traditional languages can fall into disuse when some of the effects of the majority culture on tribal life serve as barriers between a community and its traditional forms of social, economic, or spiritual interaction. In some communities the barrier has been overcome because people have recognized that language loss is serious and have taken action to prevent it, primarily through community self-teaching.

  Before any community can systematically and formally teach a traditional language to its younger members, it must first document the language's grammar; for example, a group of Northern Utes spent two years conducting a thorough analysis and classification of Northern Ute linguistic structures. The grammatical information is then arranged in sequence from the simpler to the more complex types of usage, and methods are devised to present the sequence in ways that will be most useful and appropriate to the culture.

  Certain obstacles can stand in the way of developing these teaching methods. One is the difficulty a community may encounter when it attempts to write down elements (particularly the spellings of words) of a language that has been primarily oral for centuries, as is often the case with traditional languages. Sometimes this difficulty can simply be a matter of the lack of acceptable written equivalents for certain sounds in the traditional language: problems arise because of an insistence that every sound in the language have a unique written equivalent ?a desirable but ultimately frustrating condition that no written language has ever fully satisfied.

  Another obstacle is dialect. There may be many language traditions in a particular community; which one is to be written down and taught? The Northern Utes decided not to standardize their language, agreeing that various phonetic spellings of words would be accepted as long as their meanings were clear. Although this troubled some community members who favored Western notions of standard language writing or whose training in Western-style linguistics was especially rigid, the lack of standard orthography made sense in the context of the community's needs. Within a year after the adoption of instruction in the Northern Ute language, even elementary school children could write and speak it effectively.

  It has been argued that the attempt to write down traditional languages is misguided and unnecessary; after all, in many cases these languages have been transmitted in their oral form since their origins. Defenders of the practice counter that they are writing down their languages precisely because of a general decline in oral traditions, but they concede that languages could be preserved in their oral form if a community made every effort to eschew aspects of the majority culture that make this preservation difficult.

  Which one of the following scenarios is LEAST compatible with aspects of traditional-language preservation discussed in the passage?

  A. A community decides that the best way to maintain its traditional language is to rejuvenate its oral culture.
  B. A community arranges the grammatical structures of its traditional language sequentially according to the degree of their complexity.
  C. A community agrees to incorporate words from the majority culture in its traditional language to make it easier to teach.
  D. A community determines the most appropriate methods for presenting its traditional language to students.
  E. A community deliberates about which dialect of its traditional language should be taught to students.
  C. A community agrees to incorporate words from the majority culture in its traditional language to make it easier to teach.

  ---

  When looking for something that's LEAST compatible with something in the passage, we have no way of pre-phrasing an answer, so we have to jump right into the choices. Four of the choices will sound right in line with what we know of language preservation from the passage, while the right answer will be the odd man out.

• Question 327:

  Editorialist: Drivers with a large number of demerit points who additionally have been convicted of a serious driving-related offense should either be sentenced to jail or be forced to receive driver reeducation, since to do otherwise would be to allow a crime to go unpunished. Only if such drivers are likely to be made more responsible drivers should driver re-education be recommended for them. Unfortunately, it is always almost impossible to make drivers with a large number of demerit points more responsible drivers.

  If the editorialist's statements are true, they provide the most support for which one of the following?

  A. Drivers with a large number of demerit points who have been convicted of a serious driving-related offense should be sent to jail.
  B. Driver re-education offers the best chance of making drivers with a large number of demerit points responsible drivers.
  C. Driver re-education is not a harsh enough punishment for anyone convicted of a serious driving-related offense who has also accumulated a large number of demerit points.
  D. Driver re-education should not be recommended for those who have committed no serious driving-related offenses.
  E. Drivers with a large number of demerit points but no conviction for a serious driving-related offense should receive driver re-education rather than jail.
  A. Drivers with a large number of demerit points who have been convicted of a serious driving-related offense should be sent to jail.

  ---

  This one has a formal logic feel to it. There are two possibilities for these violators: they should either get jail or re-education. But re-education works only if it will make them more responsible drivers. In other words, if re-education will work, then it will make them more responsible drivers. However, it is almost impossible for these drivers to become more responsible. What follows? Well, if these drivers won't get more responsible, then reeducation won't work. But then the only option for these drivers is jail.

• Question 328:

  One day, a poet was requested to interpret an especially peculiar and obscure passage within one of his own poems. His response was "at the time that I was writing that particular verse, only God and myself knew its meaning. Now, it is only God who knows."

  What does the poet mean by his answer?

  A. God is much wiser than people are
  B. most people can't understand poetry
  C. Poets don't often know where their creative inspiration comes from
  D. great poems are inspired by a muse E. the poet has forgotten the meaning of his own verse
  E

• Question 329:

  There should be a greater use of gasohol. Gasohol is a mixture of alcohol and gasoline, and has a higher octane rating and fewer carbon monoxide emissions than straight gasoline. Burning gasohol adds no more carbon dioxide to the

  atmosphere than plants remove by photosynthesis.

  Each of the following, if true, strengthens the argument above EXCEPT:

  A. Cars run less well on gasoline than they do on gasohol.
  B. Since less gasoline is needed with the use of gasohol, an energy shortage is less likely.
  C. Cars burn on the average slightly more gasohol per kilometer than they do gasoline.
  D. Gasohol is cheaper to produce and hence costs less at the pump than gasoline.
  E. Burning gasoline adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than plants can remove.
  C. Cars burn on the average slightly more gasohol per kilometer than they do gasoline.

  ---

  This is a strengthen EXCEPT question which means that the correct answer will either weaken the argument or have no effect on it. The author's conclusion is the recommendation made in the first sentence: There should be greater use of gasohol. Why? Because it has a higher octane rating and fewer carbon monoxide emissions than gasoline, and the carbon dioxide it adds to the air is removed by photosynthesis. Pretty straightforward, so on to the answer choices. All of the incorrect answer choices will strengthen the conclusion that gasohol should be used instead of gasoline. Option [Cars burn on the average slightly...] is correct because it provides an advantage that gasoline has over gasohol, namely that cars burn more gasohol per kilometer than gasoline. In other words, gasoline cars get better mileage. This would weaken the recommendation that gasohol be used.

• Question 330:

  Tribal communities in North America believe that their traditional languages are valuable resources that must be maintained. However, these traditional languages can fall into disuse when some of the effects of the majority culture on tribal life serve as barriers between a community and its traditional forms of social, economic, or spiritual interaction. In some communities the barrier has been overcome because people have recognized that language loss is serious and have taken action to prevent it, primarily through community self-teaching.

  Before any community can systematically and formally teach a traditional language to its younger members, it must first document the language's grammar; for example, a group of Northern Utes spent two years conducting a thorough analysis and classification of Northern Ute linguistic structures. The grammatical information is then arranged in sequence from the simpler to the more complex types of usage, and methods are devised to present the sequence in ways that will be most useful and appropriate to the culture.

  Certain obstacles can stand in the way of developing these teaching methods. One is the difficulty a community may encounter when it attempts to write down elements (particularly the spellings of words) of a language that has been primarily oral for centuries, as is often the case with traditional languages. Sometimes this difficulty can simply be a matter of the lack of acceptable written equivalents for certain sounds in the traditional language: problems arise because of an insistence that every sound in the language have a unique written equivalent ?a desirable but ultimately frustrating condition that no written language has ever fully satisfied.

  Another obstacle is dialect. There may be many language traditions in a particular community; which one is to be written down and taught? The Northern Utes decided not to standardize their language, agreeing that various phonetic spellings of words would be accepted as long as their meanings were clear. Although this troubled some community members who favored Western notions of standard language writing or whose training in Western-style linguistics was especially rigid, the lack of standard orthography made sense in the context of the community's needs. Within a year after the adoption of instruction in the Northern Ute language, even elementary school children could write and speak it effectively.

  It has been argued that the attempt to write down traditional languages is misguided and unnecessary; after all, in many cases these languages have been transmitted in their oral form since their origins. Defenders of the practice counter that they are writing down their languages precisely because of a general decline in oral traditions, but they concede that languages could be preserved in their oral form if a community made every effort to eschew aspects of the majority culture that make this preservation difficult.

  Based on the passage, the group of Northern Utes mentioned in passage would be likely to believe each of the following statements EXCEPT:

  A. Standardizing traditional languages requires arbitrary choices and is sometimes unnecessary.
  B. Written languages should reflect one standard dialect rather than several dialects.
  C. Traditional languages can be taught even if they are not rigorously standardized.
  D. Variant spellings of words are acceptable in a language if their meanings are clear.
  E. The extent to which a language should be standardized depends upon a community's needs.
  B. Written languages should reflect one standard dialect rather than several dialects.

  ---

  The Northern Utes are featured next, and it's their appearance in 4 that concerns us here. This time we have a "likely to believe EXCEPT" question, which somewhat resembles the "LEAST compatible". Use the line references to get a handle on what the Utes believe, and then you'll have a better chance of weeding out the statement they would find objectionable. So what do we know? They didn't standardize the language, figuring that some variance in spelling was okay as long as there was clarity. Although there was some grumbling, they went with what seemed right for the situation, and things seemed to work out well in the end.