When we see something like "the author confuses X with Y" or the "author fails to distinguish between X and Y," do we take this as the author literally not being able to tell X from Y? I will give two examples and see what you guys think:
PT30-S2-Q13
Planning Board says that businesses are leaving at a rate of 4/week
+
There were never more than 1,000 businesses in the region, so if they were leaving at such a rate then they would have all been gone by now
-->
The Planning Boards "recent estimate" of 4/week is exaggerated
(B) says that the argument "confuses" the claim about "rate of change" with "absolute size."
Now I could take this to be that the author is basically saying that a "rate of change" = "absolute size"? I am confused by this (probably because its the wrong answer
) but either way I just want to know what is going on here.Similarly, we have PT33-S3-Q15
Scientists want to reverse damage to ozone
+
Single trip by spacecraft does as much harm to ozone as one year's pollution by factories
-->
Since the factory pollution is unjustified so is the trip by spacecraft
(C) says that the argument "fails to distinguish" the goal of "reversing harmful effects" from "preventing those harmful effects." See this looks good because maybe the critic, getting confused with trying to reverse the damage to the ozone layer, thought that the whole point was to prevent damage to the ozone layer. Therefore, I gave this answer choice a lot more thought than I probably should have.
I hope that all makes sense and I hope that this question helps everyone!
EDIT: I am going to add "inconsistent" to this list too. I forgot to add it last night. All too often we get answer choices that are about "conclusions that are inconsistent" with a "premise." Obviously, all the assumption Q's on the LSAT are flawed so, in a way, aren't these questions all inconsistent?
I found a question with this...PT34-S2-Q3, answer choice (B).
Well of course the conclusion is "inconsistent" with the premises! The premises don't necessarily lead to the conclusion!
Thanks guys and girls.
