PrepTest 127, Section 3, Question 16
Therapist: The ability to trust other people is(27 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(13 more words not shown)
- ANo one who(6 more words not shown)
- BAnyone who has(11 more words not shown)
- CTo avoid feeling(8 more words not shown)
- DAt least some(8 more words not shown)
- EAnyone who is(17 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The therapist's conclusion sounds plausible: you need to be able to trust other people to be happy. But a familiar-sounding claim still needs support. Let's follow what the premises actually establish.
Without trust, there can be no meaningful emotional connection to another person. Without those connections, we feel isolated. So the path takes us from a lack of trust to a lack of connection and then to isolation. Where does happiness enter? So far, only in the conclusion.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for an assumption that makes that conclusion follow. We need to rule out being happy while feeling isolated. If isolation prevents happiness, then someone who cannot trust others cannot be happy: the lack of trust prevents connection, the lack of connection brings isolation, and the isolation rules out happiness. That would establish why trust is required.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
No one feeling isolated can feel happy. Add that to the stated chain: without trust, there is no meaningful connection; without connection, there is isolation; with isolation, happiness is impossible. The person who lacks the ability to trust therefore cannot be happy. That establishes the therapist's conclusion.
- B
This says that a meaningful connection can make happiness possible. It doesn't say what happens without that connection. Perhaps connected people and isolated people could both be happy. B would be true, but trust still would not have been established as essential.
- C
The premises already support this relationship: without trust, people lack meaningful connections and therefore feel isolated. Restating that trust is required to avoid isolation doesn't tell us whether an isolated person can be happy. The missing link to happiness remains.
- D
Some people who aren't isolated could be happy while other happy people do feel isolated. D gives us a few happy people in one group, not a rule excluding happiness from the other. It cannot establish that everyone needs trust in order to be happy.
- E
The premise makes trust a requirement for meaningful connection. E goes further by saying that anyone able to trust has such a connection. Even if we added that claim, it would not establish that people without trust cannot be happy. It still gives us no relationship between connection or isolation and happiness.
More Sufficient Assumption questions
- PrepTest 127, Section 2, Question 10Sufficient Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 10, Question 1Sufficient Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 12, Question 4Sufficient Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 13, Question 1Sufficient Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 3, Question 7Sufficient Assumption
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Sufficient Assumption questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.