Q20 - The public's welfare can be undermined by its own

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
ID the Conclusion

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: The public's welfare can be undermined by its own tastes.

Evidence: Journalists go after stores that pique the readers' interest. What piques the readers' interest most are sensationalized, overdramatized accounts (even more than dry accounts of really important stuff), so you end up with fact-based newspapers being supplanted by conspiracy-mongering newspapers.

Answer Anticipation:
When I read the stimulus for ID the Conclusion, I start off by listening for whether the first sentence is the conclusion (because that's where they put the conclusion in about 40% of cases). If it sounds like an author opinion that the rest of the argument fleshes out, then the first sentence was the conclusion. That's what happens in this argument.

People may get misled by the "Because" in the last sentence and pick the final claim of the paragraph as the Main Conclusion (the final claim of the paragraph is almost never the conclusion on Main Conclusion questions). The fact that the 3rd sentence starts with "because" indicates that the 1st half of that sentence supports the 2nd half. However, it's presented more as cause/effect than premise/conclusion (f.e. "Because Joey jumped off the roof, he broke his leg" rather than "Because Joey jumped off the roof, he is brave"). Even if you considered that last sentence a "Prem -> Conc" move, that final claim would only be a Subsidiary Conclusion that supports the first sentence.

Correct Answer:
A

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) YUP, that's the first sentence.

(B) This is an assumption that's made, but not an explicit claim.

(C) This is the ol' "Give them the last claim" trap. We could, at best, call this a subsidiary conclusion. It still stands in support of the first sentence.

(D) This was never said.

(E) This was never said.

Takeaway/Pattern: The two ID the Conclusion questions in this section showcased the two prevalent patterns LSAC has showed for years: 1. Conclusion is the first sentence, and 2. Conclusion is some "but/yet/however/nevertheless" rebuttal. Almost always, we hear the Conclusion before we hear the Supporting idea(s), on ID the Conclusion questions.

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