Preptest 92+, Section 1 (lr)

Question 1: WEaken

Omnicide: does it kill gophers and groundhogs? The answer, unsurprisingly, is: it doesn’t matter.

Question 2: necessary

An annoying problem that appears obnoxiously early in the LR section. Sucks!

question 3: Paradox

Jump around / jump around / jump up / jump up / and get down

question 4: disagree (rare variant)

Why do these crooks keep claiming that our van doesn’t have a foldable back seat?

question 5: strengthen

If you’re looking for Bullatus, you’ll find him at the bottom of the pond, violently sucking mud through his beak-comb.

question 6: Could be false

A quick note about answer choice (C): We interpreted the phrase “those lakes” to mean “those unlimed lakes.” The writing is ambiguous. If “those lakes” can include LIMED lakes, the correct answer becomes even more appealing.

Another comment on (C): it is theoretically possible that acid, unlike lime, does not vanish from a lake as the water is replaced. Maybe it, uh, sticks to the plants and mud.

Look — what do we know? It’s all a lot of nonsense! LSAC, why can’t you just be normal?

question 7: strengthen

What do you get when you mix studs, trucks, and ruts? You get a prudent snow-tire policy prescription — and a penicillin prescription.

question 8: Parallel flaw

Here’s an excellent litmus-test problem to help you judge whether you’re up-to-snuff with your propositional-logic diagramming skills, your step-by-step Parallel Reasoning attack, and your command of the most common fallacies that appear on the LSAT. A well-drilled test-taker should be able to knock this problem out in less than a minute.

question 9: sufficient

Can the children of William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman ever become truly intelligent?

question 10: Strengthen

Is the fact that American children don’t not fail to drink less fluoridated water than do European kids proof that fluoride doesn’t fail to fail? Would your answer change if I told you that elementary dental education in Europe isn’t entirely dissimilar from its American equivalent? What if I denied that Sour Patch Kids weren’t eaten less infrequently by American children than by Europeans? WOULD THAT CHANGE YOUR ANSWER? WOULD IT?

question 11: Main point

Why do 21st-century Americans lack energy, when life is going so well, our relationships with others are so authentic, healthy, and intimate, and the future gives us cause for such tremendous optimism?

question 12: necessary

Cats can have a little glass of red wine, as a treat.

question 13: flaw

Is “La Boulange” a real bakery, or is it just a theoretical construct used by Starbucks to sell us $8 700-calorie banana nut muffins that taste like cigarette ash? The answer, unsurprisingly, is: it doesn’t matter.

question 14: describe

“Pardon me for intruding, sir, but did I just hear you correctly? Did I just hear you say, sir, that a physical object is nothing more than a theoretical construct, given that it is composed exclusively of things that are themselves theoretical constructs? If so, you’ve made a very poor argument indeed. Your argument, sir, is a bit like my arguing that the Starbucks scone I hold in my hand — this scone, right here, sir — is a fruit — yes, a fruit, sir — for no reason other than this: it contains berries and bananas, and berries and bananas are fruit. That would be a foolish thing to say, would it not, sir? And so you see, sir, that you too have just said a very foolish thing. You have made an argument that a fool would make. Are you a fool, sir? Are you an ignorant, bewildered horse’s ass? Is that what you are? Or is this scone that I’m holding a fruit?”

question 15: must be true

This video dispels the malicious rumor that Jamil’s relatives are unable to leave their houses without feline chaperones.

question 16: strengthen

Should the Fish Police arrest an ignorant angler? Why was the show Fish Police cancelled? Was there really a show called Fish Police? Was it about . . . fish who are police officers? Was there really a show called Cop Rock, about the singen-est, dancin-est police force you ever did see? If so, why was it cancelled? Will the Simpsons, which hasn’t been funny for the last 22 years, ever be cancelled? Will Sidecar be cancelled by a Twitter mob for making unacceptable jokes? Will Skynet gain self-awareness this year and destroy us all? And — just to come back to that initial point — should an ignorant angler be cited for violating a law that even the Fish Police know nothing about?

question 17: flaw

It’s a-me, your substandard experimental plumbing curriculum!