PrepTest 151, Section 2, Question 22
Counselor: To be kind to someone, one must(52 more words not shown)
If the counselor's statements are(10 more words not shown)
- ASome people who(11 more words not shown)
- BSome people who(14 more words not shown)
- CSome people who(13 more words not shown)
- DSome people who(8 more words not shown)
- ESome people who(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
You can dislike someone and still want things to go well for them.
Keep those ideas separate. The counselor says kindness requires wanting the other person to prosper. Dislike is a different matter: people who dislike each other may still show respect, though they cannot be fully content together. People who don't dislike each other will be kind to each other.
That is a collection of rules, not an argument whose conclusion we need to attack. Nor should we replace one term with a familiar-sounding neighbor. Respect, kindness, liking, and wanting someone to prosper aren't interchangeable here.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what must be false. I don't have one particular combination predicted yet. For each choice, identify the people it describes and work through what the stated rules require of them. Four combinations can fit; one cannot.
Working the answers
- A
This can fit. Even if liking each other puts these people in the group who don't dislike each other, the rules would require kindness and wanting each other to prosper. They would not guarantee full contentment in each other's presence. The rule says dislike prevents full contentment; it doesn't say dislike is the only possible reason people might not be fully content. So liking each other and still lacking full contentment isn't ruled out.
- BCorrect
Start with the first part: these people are fully content in each other's presence. They cannot dislike each other, because the counselor says people who dislike each other cannot be fully content together.
Now use the next rule. People who don't dislike each other are kind to each other. And kindness requires wanting the other person to prosper. So the people B describes must want each other to prosper, yet B says they don't. That combination is impossible under the stated rules.
The full chain is: fully content together, so no mutual dislike; no mutual dislike, so kindness; kindness, so wanting each other to prosper. We needed several statements working together. Also, the endpoint is wanting prosperity, not actually achieving it. Nothing guarantees that either person's wishes come true.
- C
This can fit particularly well with the statement about dislike and respect. Imagine two people who dislike each other but still treat each other respectfully, a possibility the counselor expressly allows. Because they dislike each other, they aren't fully content together. That gives us the respectful-but-not-fully-content combination C describes.
- D
Wanting someone to prosper doesn't forbid disliking them. The first rule makes that wish a requirement for kindness; it never makes liking the person a requirement for the wish. Two people could dislike each other, wish each other well, and remain less than fully content together. No stated rule rules that combination out.
- E
Kindness requires wanting the other person to prosper. It is not stated to require respectful treatment as well. The separate statement about respect says that people who dislike each other may nevertheless be respectful; it doesn't say every kind person must be respectful. Under these stipulated rules, kindness without respect is allowed, even if that combination sounds odd in ordinary conversation.
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.