LSAT Test practice questions, page 23 of 30, with answer review and explanations.
Question 111
In the decade from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, large corporations were rocked by mergers, reengineering, and downsizing. These events significantly undermined employees' job security. Surprisingly, however, employees' perception of their own job security hardly changed over that period. Fifty-eight percent of employees surveyed in 1984 and 55 percent surveyed in 1994 stated that their own jobs were very secure. Each of the following contributes to an explanation of the surprising survey results described above EXCEPT:
A large number of the people in both surveys work in small companies that were not affected by mergers, reengineering, and downsizing.
Employees who feel secure in their jobs tend to think that the jobs of others are secure.
The corporate downsizing that took place during this period had been widely anticipated for several years before the mid-1980s.
Most of the major downsizing during this period was completed within a year after the first survey.
In the mid-1990s, people were generally more optimistic about their lives, even in the face of hardship, than they were a decade before.
Question 112
Amphibian populations are declining in numbers worldwide. Not coincidentally, the earth's ozone layer has been continuously depleted throughout the last 50 years. Atmospheric ozone blocks UV-B, a type of ultraviolet radiation that is continuously produced by the sun, and which can damage genes. Because amphibians lack hair, hide, or feathers to shield them, they are particularly vulnerable to UV-B radiation. In addition, their gelatinous eggs lack the protection of leathery or hard shells. Thus, the primary cause of the declining amphibian population is the depletion of the ozone layer. Each of the following, if true, would strengthen the argument EXCEPT:
Of the various types of radiation blocked by atmospheric ozone, UV-B is the only type that can damage genes.
Amphibian populations are declining far more rapidly than are the populations of non-amphibian species whose tissues and eggs have more natural protection from UV-B.
Atmospheric ozone has been significantly depleted above all the areas of the world in which amphibian populations are declining.
The natural habitat of amphibians has not become smaller over the past century.
Amphibian populations have declined continuously for the last 50 years.
Question 113
All too many weaklings are also cowards, and few cowards fail to be fools. Thus there must be at least one person who is both a weakling and a fool. The flawed pattern of reasoning in the argument above is most similar to that in which one of the following?
All weasels are carnivores and no carnivores fail to be non-herbivores, so some weasels are non-herbivores.
Few moralists have the courage to act according to the principles they profess, and few saints have the ability to articulate the principles by which they live, so it follows that few people can both act like saints and speak like moralists.
Some painters are dancers, since some painters are musicians, and some musicians are dancers.
If an act is virtuous, then it is autonomous, for acts are not virtuous unless they are free, and acts are not free unless they are autonomous.
A majority of the voting population favors a total ban, but no one who favors a total ban is opposed to stiffer tariffs, so at least one voter is not opposed to stiffer tariffs.
Question 114
Critic: Most chorale preludes were written for the organ, and the greatest chorale preludes written for the organ were written by J. S. Bach. One of Bach's chorale preludes dramatizes one hymn's perspective on the year's end. This prelude is agonizing and fixed on the passing of the old year, with its dashed hopes and lost opportunities. It does not necessarily reveal Bach's own attitude toward the change of the year, but does reflect the tone of the hymn's text. People often think that artists create in order to express their own feelings. Some artists do. Master artists never do, and Bach was a master artist. If the critic's statements are true, then on the basis of them which one of the following CANNOT be true?
Bach believed that the close of the year was not a time for optimism and joyous celebration.
In composing music about a particular subject, Bach did not write the music in order to express his own attitude toward the subject.
In compositions other than chorale preludes, Bach wrote music in order to express his feelings toward various subjects.
Most of Bach's chorale preludes were written for instruments other than the organ.
Most of the great chorale preludes were written for instruments other than the organ.
Question 115
Quasars – celestial objects so far away that their light takes at least 500 million years to reach Earth – have been seen since 1963. For anything that far away to appear from Earth the way quasars do, it would have to burn steadily at a rate that produces more light than 90 billion suns would produce. But nothing that burns at a rate that produces that much light could exist for more than about 100 million years. If the statements above are true, which one of the following must also be true on the basis of them?
Instruments in use before 1963 were not sensitive enough to permit quasars to be seen.
Light from quasars first began reaching Earth in 1963.
Anything that, from Earth appears as bright as a quasar does must produce more light than would be produced by 90 billion suns.
Nothing that is as far from Earth as quasars are can continue to exist for more than about 100 million years.
No quasar that has ever been seen from Earth exists any longer.