Q15 - The production of leather and fur

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Question Type:
Most Supported (principle)

Stimulus Breakdown:
"We know the following:
1. The production of leather and fur is labor intensive, which means that these materials have tended to be expensive.
2. As fashion has moved away from these materials, their prices have dropped, while prices of other less labor intensive and more fashionable materials have risen."

Answer Anticipation:
This is a tough one to anticipate.

Correct Answer:
(E)

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) is too strong. The topic of all manufactured goods is broader than the information above.

(B) is out of scope. The practicality of clothing is not included in the information above.

(C) is unsupported. The connetion between the amount of labor required to produce materials and how fashionable they are is not indicated by the statements above.

(D) is out of scope. The appearance of a manufactured good is not included in the information above.

(E) is correct. Cultural trends (i.e. fashion) is an important determinant of the prices of materials, since as fashion has moved away from leather and fur, the price of those materials has dropped.

Takeaway/Pattern: Reasoning Structure: Comparison

#officialexplanation

[Jahma002]

Hi Matt, your posts are very helpful as I follow them.

On this question I got the right answer through process of elimination and partial educated guess.

On E I want some help with clarifying the word "determinant". I think how you interpret this word is important in setting it apart from answer choice A.

"An important determinant" hinted me that the element "fashion" is part of many determining factors of material pricing, and not THE determinant factor in the pricing decision of manufacturing materials. Also, it is an important determinant, and not ordinary.

Also words in choice A like "price", and "any" made the choice too strong.

Let me know if my analysis is on the right track and thinking.
Thanks!
-Ahmad

[alexander.a.langer]

I chose A), as I thought making the jump from "fashion" to "cultural trends" seemed like a trap.

[ohthatpatrick]

If we're trying to conform to a generalization, we need to be an illustration of that generalization.

GENERALIZATION:
Desserts can make you happy.

If we want a situation that conforms to this, we need an example of a dessert making someone happy.

It could be cookies, chocolate cake, pie, etc.

And the example of happiness could be smiling, relief, contentment, joy, etc.

As long as you're pulling from the category of dessert and the category of happy, you're conforming to that generalization.

So since "fashion" is a "cultural trend", what we hear about fashion could conform to a generalization about "cultural trends".

Importantly, the question stem isn't saying that the situation in the stimulus JUSTIFIES a sweeping generalization about cultural trends.

It's saying that it CONFORMS to it.

That's more like asking yourself, "Is this stimulus providing an example of what this answer choice is describing"?

[xjiang.xj]

I understand why E is correct, but I just can't convince myself to eliminate A. I thought the "any" in A wasn't an issue since we are looking for a generalization. What is the problem with A?

[JoyS894]

Is there another reason why A is wrong besides the part that says "any manufactured good." Can someone clarify why the stimulus wouldn't conform to this even though it's worded strongly? I understand why E works, but more clarification on why A is wrong besides the explanation in the previous posts would be appreciated!

[ohthatpatrick]

(E) is saying that whether something is fashionable tends to be an important factor in affecting the price.

(A) says that whether something is fashionable is always a more important factor in affecting price than was the materials the objects is made form.

All we know from the story we were told was that trendiness affected some prices. How would we rank whether trendiness affected prices MORE than the materials themselves affected prices?

Let’s say that when leather was trendy, it costs $50 / yard of fabric.
Now that it’s not trendy, it costs $45 / yard.

Meanwhile, before it was trendy, easy-to-make denim cost $20 / yard.
Now that it’s trendy it costs $25 / yard.

This example is compatible with the facts we were told. In this example, which had a more important affect on price: being fashionable or being made from a labor intensive process?

The material had a bigger effect since leather, un-trendy, is still more expensive than denim, while trendy.

Beyond the fact that we definitely couldn’t rank the relative effect of materials vs. trendiness, the other problem with (A) is that the stimulus never talked about the price of any manufactured good. It only talks about the price of the materials used to make a good.

For (A) to match what we heard, we would have had to learn that items of clothing (manufactured goods) were more expensive when they were trendy, regardless of what material they were made from.

[jerryc135]

Not really like leather products

[EricaL584]

I think the main problem with A is that it is tasing about the price of "manufactured good", while the stimulus is talking about the price of materials. Also the "ANY" manufactured good would make me cautious.