Each of the following questions is drawn from an actual LSAT. Please complete each problem and then review the answer key and explanations.
1. Some argue that laws are instituted at least in part to help establish a particular moral fabric in society. But the primary function of law is surely to help order society so that its institutions, organizations, and citizenry can work together harmoniously, regardless of any further moral aims of the law. Indeed, the highest courts have on occasion treated moral beliefs based on conscience or religious faith as grounds for making exceptions in the application of laws. The statements above, if true, most strongly support
which one of the following?
(A) The manner in which laws are applied
sometimes takes into account the beliefs of
the people governed by those laws.
(B) The law has as one of its functions the ordering
of society but is devoid of moral aims.
(C) Actions based on religious belief or on moral
conviction tend to receive the protection of
the highest courts.
(D) The way a society is ordered by law should not
reflect any moral convictions about the way
society ought to be ordered.
(E) The best way to promote cooperation among a
society’s institutions, organizations, and
citizenry is to institute order in that society
by means of law.
2. Newtonian physics dominated science for over two centuries. It found consistently successful application, becoming one of the most highly substantiated and accepted theories in the history of science. Nevertheless, Einstein’s theories came to show the fundamental limits of Newtonian physics and to surpass the Newtonian view in the early 1900s, giving rise once again to a physics that has so far enjoyed wide success.
Which one of the following logically follows from
the statements above?
(A) The history of physics is characterized by a
pattern of one successful theory subsequently
surpassed by another.
(B) Long-standing success or substantiation of a
theory of physics is no guarantee that the
theory will continue to be dominant
indefinitely.
(C) Every theory of physics, no matter how
successful, is eventually surpassed by one
that is more successful.
(D) Once a theory of physics is accepted, it will
remain dominant for centuries.
(E) If a long-accepted theory of physics is
surpassed, it must be surpassed by a theory
that is equally successful.
3. The solidity of bridge piers built on pilings depends largely on how deep the pilings are driven. Prior to 1700, pilings were driven to “refusal,” that is, to the point at which they refused to go any deeper. In a 1588 inquiry into the solidity of piers for Venice’s Rialto Bridge, it was determined that the bridge’s builder, Antonio Da Ponte, had met the contemporary standard for refusal: he had caused the pilings to be driven until additional penetration into the ground was no greater than two inches after twenty-four hammer blows.
Which one of the following can properly be inferred
from the passage?
(A) The Rialto Bridge was built on unsafe pilings.
(B) The standard of refusal was not sufficient to
ensure the safety of a bridge.
(C) Da Ponte’s standard of refusal was less strict
than that of other bridge builders of his day.
(D) After 1588, no bridges were built on pilings
that were driven to the point of refusal.
(E) It is possible that the pilings of the Rialto
Bridge could have been driven deeper even
after the standard of refusal had been met.
4. Every moral theory developed in the Western tradition purports to tell us what a good life is. However, most people would judge someone who perfectly embodied the ideals of any one of these theories not to be living a good life—the kind of life they would want for themselves and their children.
The statements above, if true, most strongly support
which one of the following?
(A) Most people desire a life for themselves and
their children that is better than a merely
good life.
(B) A person who fits the ideals of one moral theory
in the Western tradition would not
necessarily fit the ideals of another.
(C) Most people have a conception of a good life
that does not match that of any moral theory
in the Western tradition.
(D) A good life as described by moral theories in
the Western tradition cannot be realized.
(E) It is impossible to develop a theory that
accurately describes what a good life is.
5. Mystery stories often feature a brilliant detective and the detective’s dull companion. Clues are presented in the story, and the companion wrongly infers an inaccurate solution to the mystery using the same clues that the detective uses to deduce the correct solution. Thus, the author’s strategy of including the dull companion gives readers a chance to solve the
mystery while also diverting them from the correct solution.
Which one of the following is most strongly
supported by the information above?
(A) Most mystery stories feature a brilliant
detective who solves the mystery presented
in the story.
(B) Mystery readers often solve the mystery in a
story simply by spotting the mistakes in the
reasoning of the detective’s dull companion
in that story.
(C) Some mystery stories give readers enough clues
to infer the correct solution to the mystery.
(D) The actions of the brilliant detective in a
mystery story rarely divert readers from the
actions of the detective’s dull companion.
(E) The detective’s dull companion in a mystery
story generally uncovers the misleading
clues that divert readers from the mystery’s
correct solution.
6. Cézanne’s art inspired the next generation of artists, twentieth-century modernist creators of abstract art. While most experts rank Cézanne as an early modernist, a small few reject this idea. Françoise Cachin, for example, bluntly states that such an ascription is “overplayed,” and says that Cézanne’s work is “too often observed from a modern point of
view.”
Which one of the following statements is most
strongly supported by the information above?
(A) Cézanne’s work is highly controversial.
(B) Cézanne was an early creator of abstract art.
(C) Cézanne’s work helped to develop modernism.
(D) Modern art owes less to Cézanne than many
experts believe.
(E) Cézanne’s work tends to be misinterpreted as
modernist.
7. Light is registered in the retina when photons hit molecules of the pigment rhodopsin and change the molecules’ shape. Even when they have not been struck by photons of light, rhodopsin molecules sometimes change shape because of normal molecular motion, thereby introducing error into the visual system. The amount of this molecular motion is directly proportional to the temperature of the retina.
Which one of the following conclusions is most
strongly supported by the information above?
(A) The temperature of an animal’s retina depends
on the amount of light the retina is
absorbing.
(B) The visual systems of animals whose body
temperature matches that of their
surroundings are more error-prone in hot
surroundings than in cold ones.
(C) As the temperature of the retina rises, rhodopsin
molecules react more slowly to being struck
by photons.
(D) Rhodopsin molecules are more sensitive to
photons in animals whose retinas have large
surface areas than in animals whose retinas
have small surface areas.
(E) Molecules of rhodopsin are the only pigment
molecules that occur naturally in the retina.
8. One of the most vexing problems in historiography is dating an event when the usual sources offer conflicting chronologies of the event. Historians should attempt to minimize the number of competing sources, perhaps by eliminating the less credible ones. Once this is achieved and several sources are left, as often happens, historians may try, though on occasion unsuccessfully, to determine independently of the usual sources which date is more likely to be right.
Which one of the following inferences is most
strongly supported by the information above?
(A) We have no plausible chronology of most of
the events for which attempts have been
made by historians to determine the right
date.
(B) Some of the events for which there are
conflicting chronologies and for which
attempts have been made by historians to
determine the right date cannot be dated
reliably by historians.
(C) Attaching a reliable date to any event requires
determining which of several conflicting
chronologies is most likely to be true.
(D) Determining independently of the usual
sources which of several conflicting
chronologies is more likely to be right is an
ineffective way of dating events.
(E) The soundest approach to dating an event for
which the usual sources give conflicting
chronologies is to undermine the credibility
of as many of these sources as possible.
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