Q16

[priyanka.krishnamurthy]

Hello:

Could anyone help me with the textual (ish) evidence for C? Via process of elimination, that one seems the most desirable, but I want to make sure I am covering my tracks with the passage text itself. I could see why, perhaps, the discussion on relative prosperity (line 51) could help with this, but I really want to know where we could infer the luck portion of the AC.

Thanks in advance!

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Author Opinion

Answer expected in lines/paragraph:
Pretty much the whole passage is up for grabs, but the author's big takeaways are lines like 48-53 and 62-66.

Any prephrase?
No way to prephrase open ended questions, but we can remind ourselves of the author's main point: people don't want relative prosperity because they want to feel superior to others (ignoble); they want relative prosperity because they think of higher wages as indicating higher value and want to think of themselves as being very valuable (benefits society).

And for any Infers / Implies / Suggests / Most Likely to Agree, expect a bunch of answer that are wrong because of wording that's Too Strong or brings in some New Comparison.

Correct answer:
C

Answer choice analysis:

A) This feels more like the opposite of the author's point. This primeval, ignoble interpretation is what the author is arguing against.

B) This author never spoke about "standard of living".

C) This could work. The author's main point is that being wealthier only leads to happiness because we assume that "wealthier" means "creating more value".

D) This author never speaks about wage increases, and "do NOT increase" is very extreme.

E) "usually" is a strong generalization. Also, this author is saying that happiness is connected to "how much value we create", and there's no clear way to attach that to a wealthier society.

Takeaway/Pattern: Naturally, the new idea of "luck" makes this correct answer unappealing. The pattern this correct answer exemplifies is simply this: when a passage indicates that the REASON for X is Y, then LSAT likes to write "most strongly supported / most likely to agree" answers that regurgitate that idea by saying, "If you didn't have Y, you wouldn't have X".

So this correct answer is saying, "if you didn't connect your higher wealth to producing more value, then you wouldn't be happier ... since believing one produces more value is the REASON for getting happy about increased wealth."

#officialexplanation

[ValeskaS238]

could anyone explain A for me? i think is a good answer though it is wrong.
thanks in advance