Q15 - Mystery stories often feature

[ocho34]

I understand that the correct answer is (C) but is answer choice (A) necessarily wrong?

The stimulus states that "mystery stories often feature a brilliant detective" and that he eventually "deduce[s] the correct solution."

Choice(A) says it features a detective and that he solves the mystery (= coming up with the correct solution).

What am I misreading in the answer choice?

[aileenann]

Yes, (A) is necessarily wrong in that it would not be a good inference to make on the LSAT. However, (A) is not necessarily false as a logical statement. Rather the problem is that we don't know that it's true.

Remember, in an inference question, you want the statement you can best justify based on the information they give you. When you seek to justify an answer, you really do want to think about *every* word in the answer choice. Is there any way you can justify saying "most" in (A)? All we know that mystery stories "often" feature a brilliant detective - but that doesn't have to be more than 50% of the time, as the word "most" would imply.

Your confusion may be more about the task than about the meaning of the sentence. Remember, you want to pick the answer choice that is a natural synthesis of the premises (or a very simply restatement of the premise). You want a bland answer, that is in line with the degree of the original passage. Most of all, you want something you can defend based on the facts as you have them and without making any additional assumptions.

[cyruswhittaker]

Hi!
On 15, I chose E, but I can see how C, D, and E could all be correct. Could someone explain why D and E are incorrect and how I should have arrived at this?

Thanks in advance!!

We are told that the same clues are used (the same ones presented in the story) by the brilliant detective that are used by the dull detective, and this gives the reader a chance to solve the mystery. So, if this is true, then C must be true; some (1 or more) stories must provide enough clues that the reader could infer the correct solution.

D talks about the brilliant detective diverting readers, but we have no information supporting this. The stimulus never talks about the effects that the brilliant detective has on the reader.

E mentions the dull detective discovering misleading clues, but the stimulus only discusses using the same clues, so this is out of scope.

[sheffieldjordan]

The correct answer states "Some mystery stories give readers enough clues to infer the correct solution to the mystery."

My immediate thought after reading this was the following: the stimulus states ONLY that the detective uses the clues to "deduce the correct solution" and that the story "gives readers a chance to solve the mystery." And I marked it off as an incorrect answer because there were no facts in the stimulus to support it.

The stimulus says nothing about there being ENOUGH clues for the reader to deduce the correct solution, it simply says that the reader has a chance.

What am I missing?

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

The second statement that you highlighted actually does support answer choice (C). I would be careful about using the word "infer" though. This question would generally be lumped in together with inference questions. But the question is actually asking for which answer choice is "most strongly supported." That's a slightly weaker statement and allows the correct answer choice to be slightly less than something we know to be absolutely true.

Answer choice (C) is supported by the claim that

the story "gives readers a chance to solve the mystery."

Maybe you're seeing this statement to imply something less - can you explain why you feel this statement is insufficient to support answer choice (C)?

[shirando21]

Why can't B be correct?

[timmydoeslsat]

We have absolutely no information about how readers solve these mysteries. Perhaps no reader ever solves the mystery even though they are given enough clues for a chance to solve it.

This is introducing a causal element that we do not exists either in how a reader solves the mystery. Simply by spotting the mistake? Maybe spotting the mistake is only going to slow the reader down and force him to be nowhere near the true solution. We have no evidence to suggest that spotting the companion's mistake could ever cause one to solve the mystery, or even if a reader ever in fact solves a mystery.

[syousif3]

The reason I'm having a hard time seeing why C is the right answer because it says .. "... while also diverting them from the correct solution"

and C says "some mystery stories give readers enough clues to infer the correct solutions to the mystery" I just dont see how this answer is supported. I know it says that readers are given a chance to solve the mystery (but maybe they will have an inaccurate solution because they are being diverted from the correct one)

Please someone help. I'm so confused!

[patrice.antoine]

The reason I'm having a hard time seeing why C is the right answer because it says .. "... while also diverting them from the correct solution"

and C says "some mystery stories give readers enough clues to infer the correct solutions to the mystery" I just dont see how this answer is supported. I know it says that readers are given a chance to solve the mystery (but maybe they will have an inaccurate solution because they are being diverted from the correct one)

Please someone help. I'm so confused!

The fact that readers are given a chance to solve the mystery means that they could solve the mystery despite being diverted by the detective's companion.

Remember, the detective, companion and reader are all relying on the same clues to solve the crime. The detective solves it, the companion does not and the reader COULD. Just because the reader is diverted by the companion does not mean the reader can never solve the mystery.

[daytimeowl17]

This forum might have been closed already, but I'm having a problem eliminating D. If the same clues are presented for both detective and companion, and the readers are diverted by the companion's wrong deduction, then why can't we safely infer that the readers are far less diverted by the detective's correct deduction? If readers are as frequently diverted by the detective as they are by the companion, then how can they be diverted from the correct solution? Or is it that their deductions are not presented simultaneouly, and the readers are diverted by the companion's incomplete analysis until the finale scene where the detective presents his brilliant answer, cuz all detectives are such drama queens?

[lizbiz840]

This forum might have been closed already, but I'm having a problem eliminating D. If the same clues are presented for both detective and companion, and the readers are diverted by the companion's wrong deduction, then why can't we safely infer that the readers are far less diverted by the detective's correct deduction? If readers are as frequently diverted by the detective as they are by the companion, then how can they be diverted from the correct solution? Or is it that their deductions are not presented simultaneouly, and the readers are diverted by the companion's incomplete analysis until the finale scene where the detective presents his brilliant answer, cuz all detectives are such drama queens?

I think the problem with D is that the stimulus states essentially the dull companion incorrectly deduced solution, while using the same clues as the detective, diverts the readers from the correct solution. There really is nothing in the stimulus that states the detective diverts anything, from anyone, or for any reason and I think that to even say, as D does, "rarely" does is false because we have no reason to believe this at all given the information in the stimulus. That would go under the category of new information I believe.

Now this is just my opinion, anyone and everyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I just thought I could provide some insight to this since you posted the question a month ago and the September LSAT is around the corner. Of course I'm assuming that you might need the information beforehand because you're taking the next LSAT, which could be wrong.

[lissethbayona]

I am also unsure about why D should be eliminated. I like daytimeowl17's explanation of the timeline in which things happen in mystery stories which prevents readers from being diverted by the detective since the detective solves the mystery only after the companion wrongly infers an inaccurate solution. So it is impossible for the detective to divert readers from the companion's actions. That makes sense to me but I also feel like that's not explicitly stated in the stimulus so we have to make some assumptions to get there.

I also thought a reason to eliminate D was because of the word "rarely" which I'm pretty sure means "sometimes" on the LSAT. So like lizbiz840 said, we don't have anything in the stimulus that says the detective diverts readers from anything at all. We only know the companion diverts readers.

Is this correct? Does rarely=sometimes on the LSAT?

[851869412]

A more general question: if we replace the "often" to "usually", would (A) be correct?

I mean, can we conclude that "often = sometimes", while "usually = most time"?