PrepTest 148, Section 4, Question 21
Critic: To be a literary classic a book(23 more words not shown)
If the critic's statements are(10 more words not shown)
- AAny book worthy(7 more words not shown)
- BA book is(11 more words not shown)
- CThere are no(6 more words not shown)
- DSome books worthy(12 more words not shown)
- ESome books that(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A book can't qualify as a classic if it fails a requirement for being one. Here, that requirement is revealing something significant about the human condition. Merely revealing something wouldn't guarantee that a book is a classic, but a book that reveals nothing significant is out.
Now add the second statement. Something unworthy of serious study reveals nothing significant. Imagine a page of scheduling notes that isn't worth serious study and tells us nothing about the human condition. It would fail the requirement for being a classic. The two statements connect through that missing insight.
What we’re looking for
For what must be true, I'd predict that nothing unworthy of serious study can be a literary classic. Or, put positively, every literary classic must be worthy of serious study. Those are two ways of expressing the same restriction.
Working the answers
- A
Being worthy of study doesn't guarantee being a classic. Imagine a physics textbook that deserves careful study but isn't a literary classic. Nothing in the critic's rules excludes that possibility. We can establish a requirement for classics without establishing that everything meeting the requirement is a classic.
- BCorrect
'Only if' introduces a requirement: a book cannot be a literary classic unless it is worthy of serious study. Why? If it were unworthy, the second statement says it would reveal nothing significant about the human condition. It would then fail the first statement's requirement for being a classic. B gives us the connection we predicted, without claiming that worthiness alone guarantees classic status.
- C
The rules require any literary classic to be worthy of serious study. They don't tell us that there are no such books. C would rule out every worthy classic, even though a book that is worthy, revealing, and a classic fits both statements perfectly. We can't conclude C from these restrictions.
- D
That physics textbook might be an example: perhaps it deserves study without revealing anything significant about the human condition. But 'might' isn't enough. The passage doesn't establish that any book has those two features. It allows that combination without requiring an example of it.
- E
This is also possible without being guaranteed. Revealing something significant doesn't ensure that a book is a classic, but that doesn't prove some revealing books fail to be classics. Perhaps every revealing book happens to be one. The rules leave that possibility open, so they don't establish E.
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.