PrepTest 132, Section 4, Question 6
University administrator: Any proposal for a new department(66 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AThe field of(12 more words not shown)
- BThe proposed Area(20 more words not shown)
- CIf the proposed(24 more words not shown)
- DThe Anthropology Department(15 more words not shown)
- EThe field of(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Both problems have to be present. Don't stop reading the funding rule after “fewer than 50 people.” The university refuses funding when there are too few people available for hire and too much overlap with an existing department.
Area Studies already has the overlap problem. It duplicates more than 25 percent of Anthropology's material. Yet the university will fund it. That means the other problem cannot be present: there must be at least 50 people available for hire.
What we’re looking for
Test it with 49. Now we would have fewer than 50 available people and excessive duplication. The rule would block funding, contradicting what the administrator says. Exactly 50 avoids that problem, so we shouldn't insist on more than 50. That's the inference to find in the answers.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
At least 50 people must be available each year. We already have one of the two conditions that would prohibit funding. Since the department will be funded, the other condition—fewer than 50 available people—must be absent.
- B
We aren't told how much Area Studies overlaps with departments other than Anthropology. It could overlap with several. As long as the field has at least 50 people available for hire, that overlap wouldn't activate the stated two-part prohibition.
- C
Removing the duplication problem would not activate the rule against funding. The rule blocks funding when both problems are present; it doesn't say to reject a department when one of them is absent. C supplies a new reason for refusing funding that the administrator never gives.
- D
The percentages use different totals. Suppose Anthropology covers 100 topics and Area Studies covers 200, with 30 shared topics. Area Studies would duplicate 30 percent of Anthropology's material, as the passage requires. But those same 30 topics would be only 15 percent of Area Studies' material.
There is shared material in both descriptions. What doesn't carry over is the percentage, because we're measuring that material against a different department's total.
- E
This would make funding impossible under the stated rule. Fewer than 50 available people, combined with the duplication we're already told about, would require rejection. The administrator expressly says the department will be funded, so E cannot be true.
More Must Be True questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Must Be True questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.