a Negative question

[xinglipku]

There is a question in the Negative practice:

13. There have been many instances in which the team has proven itself honorable.

And the correct answer is: "There have not been many instances in which the team has proven itself honorable." Why isn't it "There have never been any instances in which the team has proven itself honorable"? Isn't "many" equivalent with "some" in LSAT?

[alexgoldman7]

When approaching these kinds of questions, don't jump to the most extreme case which would be to negate the verb, as you did "many" to "never". You should focus on the modifier.

"have been" negated to "not have been" is the correct answer


...Demetri wheres my t shirt?

[demetri.blaisdell]

Thanks for stepping in on this one, Alex. A few more posts and you will definitely earn yourself a t-shirt (and accompanying shout-out in class).

For the negation test, you want to negate it in the least dramatic way.

"Every boy likes baseball" becomes either 1) Not every boy likes baseball or 2) at least some boys don't like baseball.

It does not become no boy likes baseball. You can think of it as "negating like a debater." You want to negate it but in the least extreme way. That way, you'll know if it logically destroys the argument. If you negate it too strongly ("no boy has ever liked baseball for all of history"), you may destroy the argument BUT only because of your dramatic negation.

I hope this helps. Thanks again to both of you.

Demetri