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Logical Reasoning · Strengthen

PrepTest 143 · Section 1 · Question 21

Phase 1 (your first ~400 questions): read the guidance, then answer. No clock.

Step 1 · Pre-Question Guidance · read this first

Question type
Strengthen
The one idea it tests
If the big objection is cost, the best support shows you will not need to pay the full cost.
The basic logic
The argument predicts people will buy something even though outfitting everyone is expensive. Find the gap: the cost of covering the whole group. An answer that shows you only need to cover a few members shrinks the cost and makes buying sensible at today's price.
Tiny words that decide it
  • “all”
  • “nevertheless”
  • “today's price”
  • “few”

Playground logic

The Galactic Gum Company predicts teachers will buy its beeping Line Leader bands even though putting one on every kid costs way more than a rope. The patty that helps: kids in line always follow the same two leaders, so teachers only need two bands.

Step 2 · The kid story

The Beeping Line Leader

The Galactic Gum Company launched a new gadget: a wristband that beeps when a kid wanders out of the lunch line, and keeps beeping until they step back in. "Every teacher will buy one for every student!" shouted the ad. Ms. Rivera looked at the price. "A rope costs two dollars. Thirty wristbands cost a fortune." Marcus said, "Then nobody will buy them. Prediction failed." Lulu raised her clipboard. "Wait. I tracked our line for a week. Everyone just follows Nadia and Owen. When they wander, we all wander. When they stay put, we all stay put." Priya smiled. "So a teacher only needs two bands, not thirty. Two bands are cheap enough. The prediction just got a lot more believable." Kevin asked if the band came in dinosaur green.

Step 3 · Try the model question

The Galactic Gum Company sells a wristband that beeps whenever a child steps out of line. Putting a band on every child in a class costs far more than using a rope. Even so, the company predicts teachers will buy the bands at today's price.

Which of these, if true, gives the most support to the company's prediction?

Choices

Step 4 · The courtroom tale

The Lighthouse Lamp Dispute

A lamp maker was sued by investors who said she misled them. "She predicted every harbor would buy her smart lamps," their lawyer said, "but lighting every buoy in a harbor costs ten times more than paint and bells." Mr. Whitfield, for the lamp maker, called a harbor pilot to the stand. "How do boats find their way in?" he asked. "They follow the lead buoy," the pilot said. "Light the first three, and every boat lines up behind." Mr. Whitfield turned to the judge. "Your Honor, harbors need three lamps, not three hundred. At that price, her prediction was perfectly reasonable." The investors' lawyer sat down quietly.

Step 5 · Work the real question

Open PrepTest 143, Section 1, Question 21 in your official copy from LSAC (for example in LawHub) and read it there.

Your answer

How to apply it

Spot the prediction and the obstacle placed against it, usually a cost or a drawback. Ask what would make buying sensible despite that obstacle, at the price as it stands today. Look for the answer that shrinks the real cost, for example by showing only part of the group needs the product. For each choice, ask: does this make the stated obstacle smaller? If the obstacle stands untouched, the choice does not help much.