PrepTest 152, Section 1, Question 3
Letter to the Editor: The arts section of(34 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(7 more words not shown)
- ASome newspapers do(7 more words not shown)
- BThe number of(15 more words not shown)
- CThe newspaper has(8 more words not shown)
- DThe newspaper does(26 more words not shown)
- EThe newspaper published(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe there are simply more movies to review.
The letter treats the number of reviews as proof of bias. But I'd want to know what the paper had to review. If there are far more new movies than local plays, more movie reviews could reflect that difference rather than unfair treatment. The audience's interests might matter too, but the availability of productions is a more immediate question about this comparison.
What we’re looking for
We know there are some plays—the paper reviewed them—so we shouldn't imagine a town with no theater at all. Instead, imagine only a handful of local productions alongside a much larger stream of movie releases. A five-to-one review count would look very different in that setting. For a weakener, I'd look for that missing information about the available movies and plays.
Working the answers
- A
Other newspapers doing less for theater doesn't establish that this paper treats theater fairly. It could be biased even if another paper never reviews a play. The argument isn't claiming this newspaper is the worst of all newspapers; it claims this one favors movies unfairly.
- BCorrect
There were significantly more movies available to review than local plays. That gives a reason for a larger number of movie reviews besides bias: the paper was choosing from very different amounts of material.
We aren't given an exact ratio of available works, so B doesn't prove the coverage was perfectly proportionate or that the paper was unbiased. It weakens the attempt to infer bias from the raw review counts alone. Those counts are less telling once we know how unequal the pools were.
- C
Five movie critics could help explain how the paper produces more movie reviews. But why did it choose that staffing balance? The allocation of critics could itself reflect the alleged preference. C moves the question back one step without providing an independent reason to think the balance of coverage is fair. It doesn't prove bias either; it simply doesn't get the paper off the hook.
- D
Limited space means the paper must choose what to cover. It doesn't explain why the choices should favor movies at this rate. The letter could accept that not everything fits and still ask why more of the available space isn't devoted to theater. We need a reason for the particular allocation, not merely a reason decisions have to be made.
- E
More theater reviews could represent improvement without eliminating the alleged imbalance. Imagine theater reviews increasing from two to three while movie reviews remain far more numerous. The increase alone wouldn't establish fair treatment. E gives a comparison with the paper's past, but it doesn't supply the missing comparison between current coverage and the productions available.
More Weaken questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Weaken questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.