Q12 - Archaeologists are discovering...

[sh854]

Hi, I was wondering if someone can help me with the core for this question. I had a hard time differentiating between answer choices B and E. Why is B wrong?

I had the core as:

Recent excavations have found copper and broze ---> Sals did not smelt Iron.
+
distinct words for copper and bronze

[jljacobs17]

Hi!

Disclaimer - not a teacher, but thought I'd pitch in.

So, first thing to notice is that it's a sufficient assumption question ("Fill the hole").

I think that you've got the core correct here. As for the answer choices, we're looking for a connection between 'smelting' a thing and 'having a word for' a thing.

Keeping this in mind:

A - This says Have a word for a metal --> smelted the metal, which is the reverse of what we need.
B - Argument doesn't say anything about the culture being 'unfamiliar' with the metal. The argument is about smelting the metal. Maybe they were familiar with iron, they just didn't use it for smelting, and thus didn't have a name for it.
C - What about iron?
D - Same as B.
E - Yes - If it is true that a culture smelted a metal only if it had a word for that metal, then if the Sals culture did not have a word for iron, it didn't smelt iron (aka the contrapositive).

[sh854]

Thank you jljacobs17!

I appreciate your help. Quick question...wouldn't the Contrapositive of the argument be if Sals smelted iron, then they had distinct word for iron?

Also, why do you think D is wrong?

[ohthatpatrick]

Great explanation! Let me put an "official" one up here.

Question Type: Sufficient Assumption

Task: Pick the answer that, when added to the evidence, makes the conclusion 100% logically, mathematically derived.

Argument Core:
Conc - The Sals did not smelt iron
(why?)
Prem - They had no word for iron.

(You may notice that I've ignored a lot of the other stuff mentioned in the evidence --- why? because nothing else there sounds like a reason why the Sals didn't smelt iron)

We need a conditional idea that bridges us from PREM to CONC.

Prediction:
If no word for iron --> then didn't smelt iron

We're really just looking at the language shift from "didn't have a word for X" to "didn't smelt X".

Tendencies:
The correct answer on SA is often disguised by being in contrapositive form.
- for example, "If did smelt it, then had a word for it" would work

There is often at least one trap answer that is a negation/reversal of what we actually want.
- for example "If had word for it, then smelted it" is a trap, a negation of what we actually want.

=== answers ===

(A) Fake negation
We need "If didn't have word, didn't smelt it"

(B) This has nothing to do with whether or not something was smelted, so it's useless when it comes to proving the conclusion "the Sals did not smelt iron".

(C) This is almost the contrapositive of what we wanted, "If you smelted it, you had a word for it". But (C) isn't expressed in a general way that we could apply to 'iron'. It gives us a rule that is specific to copper and bronze.

(D) Fake reversal
We need "If didn't have word, didn't smelt it"
Any answer choice on LSAT that takes the form "IF conclusion, then ..." will always be wrong. It won't allow us to prove the conclusion, because the conclusion is on the wrong side of the arrow.

(E) Disguised contrapositive answer (classic, predictable Sufficient Assumption)
Smelted --> had a word
didn't have a word --> didn't smelt

Don't take this in a mean way, but if you're ever hearing yourself ask "Why is answer ____ wrong ?" on a Sufficient Assumption question, it normally means one of two things:
1. You aren't yet comfortable with what your task is on Sufficient Assumption. You're thinking Strengthen, instead of Prove. You don't work Wrong to Right on Sufficient Assumption, just like you wouldn't work wrong to right on this question "7 + ____ = 12?" You just solve it up front and find that answer, being mindful that they'll probably disguise the conditional you predict by writing it in contrapositive form.

2. You aren't yet automatic with conditional logic. In this example, if you're attracted to (D), you're not thinking about Sufficient Assumption with the correct mathematical, robotic, logic brain.

If you know your goal is to get
----> didn't smelt it

then an answer choice that says
didn't smelt it ----->

is useless.

======

Side note, how did LSAC resist writing this answer choice:
(F) If a culture smelt it, then a culture dealt it.