#2974

[Raymond.Keimer]

P: Highly visible burglar alarms reduce the likelihood that a home will be robbed.
A: (If something makes a home less likely to be robbed, that thing is a useful device.)
C: Some highly visible burglar alarms are useful devices.

I'm struggling to understand why that's the conclusion instead of ALL highly visible alarms are useful devices.

[hyewonkim89]

Hi Raymond.Keimer,

I think the reason why it is not ALL highly visible alarms is because the premise says "reduces the likelihood."

It never says highly visible alarms WILL PREVENT robbery, but only states that these alarms make robbery LESS LIKELY. So it makes SOME alarms useful.

[jeffmartin043]

Hi Raymond.Keimer,

I think the reason why it is not ALL highly visible alarms is because the premise says "reduces the likelihood."

It never says highly visible alarms WILL PREVENT robbery, but only states that these alarms make robbery LESS LIKELY. So it makes SOME alarms useful.

I'm still unclear about why only some highly visible alarms are useful and not all. The assumption states that any thing that reduces the likelihood of a home being robbed is sufficeint for that product to be useful. So, since the premise states that highly visible burglar alarms reduce the likelhood of a home being robbed, would that not meet the sufficient condition for usefulness?

If the premise had stated that SOME highly visible burglar alarms reduced the likelihood of a home being robbed, I could see why only some would be considered useful. However, since the modifier some is not used in the premise, would we not take the premise to mean that ALL highly visible burglar alarms reduce the likelihood of a home robbery? Also, neither the premise nor the assumption mention anything about the actual prevention of home robberies so I don't understand how that would come into play.

Any help clarifying this problem would be greatly appreciated!

[christine.defenbaugh]

jeffmartin043, thanks so much for posting!

I have some good news, and some bad news:

The good news is that all of your logical analysis is absolutely rock solid! The premise establishes that highly visible burglar alarms make getting robbed less likely, and anything that makes getting robbed less likely is a useful thing. This absolutely could support a conclusion that all highly visible burglar alarms are useful!

The bad news is that that isn't what the incorrect conclusion actually said!



This question tests your attention to detail the same way the LSAT will, by introducing a detail shift that your mind is likely to simply gloss over ('mental spackle'!).

The incorrect conclusion is actually about ALL VISIBLE burglar alarms, not just all HIGHLY visible burglar alarms! That's a potentially much broader category, and we don't have any information to support a claim about the entire category of visible burglar alarms - just the highly visible ones!

It's so easy to misread that incorrect conclusion as if it had the word "highly" in it - we add in the words that we expect to be there, and the LSAT knows it. Sneaky devils. This is a test in making your radar for term shifts much more sensitive!

Does that help clear things up a bit?

[NichP73]

Hi Raymond.Keimer,

I think the reason why it is not ALL highly visible alarms is because the premise says "reduces the likelihood."

It never says highly visible alarms WILL PREVENT robbery, but only states that these alarms make robbery LESS LIKELY. So it makes SOME alarms useful.

For all of those reading this, this is not correct. Both premise and assumption say 'less likely' or 'reduce the likelihood.' The key is in the term 'highly visible,' specifically, 'highly.'

On a second note, it is true that if all x are z, then some x are z too. Remember that some means at least 1

[smiller]

That's correct, NichP73. The difference is not between "reduces the likelihood" and "all." The difference in the answers is between "visible" and "highly visible."

[westjensontexasw560]

I think the reason why it is not ALL highly visible alarms is because the premise says "reduces the likelihood." mobdro apk tubemate