Q20

[elise.coletta]

Hi there,

This question is actually related to Q20 in passage 4 (I think there might be something off with the Navigator?). This might be a silly question, but could someone please explain why D is incorrect? I found support for the correct answer choice (A) in lines 48-51, but I can't figure out why D is explicitly incorrect, or why it is in fact the wrong answer - it seems to be more the focus of the passage than the two elements mentioned in the last paragraph.

Thank you in advance!

[ohthatpatrick]

Trust your heart, not your Navigator.

There is a thread for Q20 in Passage 4 on PT71
https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/foru ... t8995.html

You're saying when you were scoring your test on Navigator, you saw you got Q20 wrong and it looked like that question was part of Passage 3?

Anyhoo, since I'm here, I might as well cater to your inquiry.

I think you like (D) because you're thinking, "Well, this is true. There were two different explanations offered. It's still getting debated."

But when you're doing Main Point, you should remind yourself of the Author's Purpose. I'm always picking 1-3 sentences in every passage I read that I consider the Point/Purpose.

For this passage, 48-54 would have been my Most Valuable Sentence(s)

Using the MVS(s) as my "proof window" for big picture RC questions helps me remember which themes/buzzwords LSAT is testing us on.

If you re-read this passage again, now knowing that the author is NOT cool with the front-to-back explanation, you'll hear the foreshadowing of his skepticism.

Physicists are often asked ____ .
Their answer is simply ____ . This is called field-of-sight.
However, some physicists offer a completely different explanation. (front-to-back)
The most notable thing is that it's clearly based on a false premise.
This explanation appeals to many people, however, because it's successful - to a point.
In addition to intuitive appeal, front-to-back is motivated by ___.
Scientists like to think that _____ .
However, countdown to mic drop ...

Did you FEEL that academic bodyslam, front-to-back?
(Because we LSAT students barely did)

But that's what our author's purpose was in writing this essay: to tell the front-to-back crowd that their style of explanation is inherently deficient.

[AyakiK696]

I was looking for something like answer choice A for this question, but I guess I was a little thrown off by "elements," and so I ultimately went with D but I can see now why that's wrong. I was looking more for something like "two different perspectives," but I suppose elements is pretty close in meaning. So in the LSAT, can we assume that we won't be thrown tempting answer choices that contain the right gist of the argument, but describe it in "meh" kind of terms? I'm just wondering because this has happened to me several times where there was a particular detail about an answer choice that deterred me from going with that choice, and then it ended up being correct. One example from this test is question 23 (section 3), where the correct answer would have been more accurate had it contained a "sometimes" but was instead phrased as an absolute statement, which tripped me up.

Also--the question showed up as being the last question of passage 3 for me on Navigator as well.

[ohthatpatrick]

Not sure I followed your question.

Correct answers frequently use synonyms that we (and they) wouldn't have chosen if we were looking to write the best possible version of a correct answer.

Correct answers are always the "best" available answer. There are a lot generic nouns that get used that are interchangeable, so you have to be flexible about interpreting each answer choice.

It would be essentially the same answer whether it said:
two particular elements / things / components / perspectives / considerations, etc.

Agreed about Q23 in S3, but again, we have to go off the frustrating standard of, "Was there a better answer?"