Q7 - Jorge: You won't be able to

[wj097]

Hi, though (A) seems to be the only viable choice, bit uneasy on the language.

Jorge is concerned about who can "write well" while (A) deals with who can be "qualified to write" which are clearly different concepts. So Jorge, like Ruth, can disagree on (A) saying, "there can be many others who can be qualified, its just that those teen/20s are the only ones that can write well"

Thx.

[bbirdwell]

That's what process of elimination is for! "Qualified to write" and "write well" may be a bit different from each other, but as you said, this is clearly the best choice. And that's all we're looking for -- not the perfect choice -- the best choice. Part of mastering the LSAT is becoming more comfortable in these situations, without wasting time thinking too hard about it and moving on.

I'll add that those two concepts "write well" and "qualified to write" may not be as disparate as they seem at first glance. Jorge says that Ruth can't write well about that period because she's not old enough.

Thus, Jorge views "being old enough" as a qualification for even being considered to write well. In other words, one cannot write well if one is unqualified to do so. Note that this does not mean that just because a person is old enough, their writing will be good.

But being old enough is the first prerequisite, in Jorge's view.

And Ruth disagrees. She does not believe that her "youth ALONE" will prevent her from writing well.

[WaltGrace1983]

I'll add some analysis to the rest.

Jorge:

Ruth was an infant in the 1960s
→
Ruth won't be able to write well about the rock music of the 1960s

Ruth:

There are living writers who write well about ancient Roman culture, they weren't apart of that culture
→
It is not necessarily so that one who wasn't old enough cannot write well about rock music of the 1960s

They disagree about who can write well about the rock music of the 1960s. Jorge says that you really have had to be a part of the culture during the 1960s to write well about it. In other words, you had to be in your teens/early twenties in the 1960s to write well about it. However, Ruth says that this isn't necessarily so. She uses an analogous situation: people can write well about ancient Roman culture even though they of course weren't around during that time.

Thus, Ruth attacks Jorge's argument by showing that the absence of his necessary condition (being teens/twenties during the 1960s) isn't actually necessary for his sufficient condition (writing well). Ruth says, "look. You can still write well AND not be a part of the culture" in response to Jorge saying, "If write well → must be a part of the culture."

(A) Yes! This is exactly what happens. As I said above, Ruth destabilizes Jorge's necessary condition (the "only if" part of his statement). In other words, she thinks that NOT ONLY those people who were in their teens/twenties during the 1960s can be qualified while Jorge thinks that ONLY those people who were in their teens/twenties during the 1960s can be qualified.

(B) Close, but not quite! We are looking for something about people who were NOT in their teens/twenties during the 1960s. No one seems to be refuting with/accepting that people in their teens/twenties during the 1960s can write well! Instead, they are arguing about if those who were infants during the 1960s could write well.

(C) We know nothing about the age of people writing about ancient cultures. Well, other than the fact that they are not 2,000+ years old

(D) Well Jorge definitely doesn't seem to think so, he thinks that you could only be in teens/twenties during the 1960s to write well on it. Yet we aren't very certain about what Ruth thinks. She could very well think that only those people alive in the 1960s could write well about it but we really don't know. All we know is that Ruth thinks that NOT only those people who were in their teens/twenties during the 1960s could write well about it.

(E) "Appeal to people?" Out of scope. We know nothing about how appealing her ideas are.

[sh854]

what question type is #7-8?

[tommywallach]

These question type are particular to this type of two-part prompt. The first one is an "Identify the Disagreement" and the second is a "Method of Reasoning" question.

-t