Q1 - Before the printing press

[charleneroche]

could someone please explain this question type and how c is correct and not the other answers? thanks

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Hi charleneroche, good question.

This question takes a quite common form on the LSAT - particularly in Strengthen/Weaken questions. The argument provides some sort of observation (demand for books increased after the invention of the invention of the printing press) and the goes on to offer an explanation for why it happened (increase in the number of people who learned how to read).

The problem for an argument with this structure is that the provided explanation is only one of many possible explanations; maybe people suddenly had more expendable income, maybe there was increase of very high quality books that everyone wanted to read, or maybe as answer choice (C) points out the increase in books sold didn't come from an increase in readers, but from an increase in the number of books read by the same readers as before.

Incorrect Answers
(A) supports the argument's hypothesis that there was in increase in the number of people who could read (assuming that reading and writing are both aspects of the same phenomenon - literacy).
(B) is irrelevant, since this fails to indicate whether the people scribbling in the margins represented an increase in number of people who were actually reading those books.
(D) and (E) support the argument's hypothesis that there was increase in the number of people who could read.

[charleneroche]

Thanks for answering the question

[lsatgotrocked]

Question Type: Weaken

Premise: The public’s demand for printed books in the first years after PP many times higher than demand for manuscript copies.

Conclusion: This shows that there was an increase in the number of people who learned how to read.

Look for assumptions: The increase was not due to anything other than the fact that people learned how to read (i.e. people were not buying extra books – maybe certain people/merchants thought these books would increase in value and so they decided to stock up on them now and sell them later?)
A common way to weaken would be to show another cause for this increase. At this point, this is the biggest assumption that comes to my mind and so now I head to the answer choices.

A.) Letter writing? Out of scope and irrelevant.
B.) This doesn’t really get at the core of our argument but one could say that this strengthens since there is an indication that people are able to read and write.
C.) The correct answer. This gets at our initial assumption by giving an alternate cause. People are just buying more – but they are the same people.
D.) More people reading supports argument.
E.) Supports the fact that people were reading more.