Logical Reasoning · Paradox
PrepTest 108 · Section 2 · Question 4
Phase 1 (your first ~400 questions): read the guidance, then answer. No clock.
Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first
- “however”
- “and yet”
- “each”
Playground logic
Leaving bikes out usually means rust, yet every bike in Grandpa's neighborhood sits outside and none rust. The fix is something all those bikes share that breaks the path from rain to rust, so both facts can shake hands.
Step 2 · The kid story
The Bikes That Never Rust
Everyone knows that bikes left outside get rusty. Tommy's old bike turned orange in one winter. But on Grandpa's block, every family leaves their bikes out on the lawn all year long. Rain, snow, sprinklers, everything. And not one of those bikes has a speck of rust. Marcus declares, "It's a mystery! Maybe Grandpa's block is magic." Lulu checks her clipboard. "Wait. Every bike on the block came from Grandpa's friend's shop. He paints every bike with a special coating that keeps water from ever touching the metal." Priya smiles. "There it is. Rain still falls, but it can't do the thing that makes rust. Both facts are true, and now they get along."
Step 3 · Try the model question
Bikes left outdoors usually rust. Yet on Grandpa's block, every bike has been kept outdoors for years, and none has rusted.
Suppose each choice were true. Which best resolves the apparent conflict described above?
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Dry Basement
An insurance lawyer told the judge, "Your Honor, houses near the river almost always flood. Yet every house on Willow Bend has a bone-dry basement. Someone must be lying on their forms!" Mr. Whitfield stood. "Your Honor, every house on that street was built by the same builder. She put a sealed concrete wall under every one of them. Water reaches the wall and stops." The judge nodded slowly. "So the river is still near, and floods are still common. These houses simply share something that blocks the water." "No lies," said Mr. Whitfield. "Just a good wall." Case dismissed.
Step 5 · Work the real question
Open PrepTest 108, Section 2, Question 4 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.
Your answer
How to apply it
State the puzzle in one line: a general link between a factor and a result, and a group that has the factor without the result. Use the Handshake Test: the right answer must leave the general link true and explain the group. Prefer an answer that names something the whole group shares and that blocks the step leading to the result. Reject answers that cover only part of the group or that never connect to how the result comes about.