LSAT prep course

 1. From the eighth through the 19th century, the Japanese imperial power underwent a period of steady decline. This is often wrongly attributed to a fundamental bias in Japanese society ensuring that clan loyalty was always more important than loyalty to any emperor. A close look at the evidence, however, reveals that even as late as the Kamakura period in the 12th and 14th centuries, military dictators with the title “shogun” ruled in the name of emperor and exercised a strong centralized power. Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument?
A - Many historians believe that geography and the system of taxation were more crucial than clan loyalty in undermining imperial power.
B - The shoguns came from independent clans and ruled without concern for the emperor.
C - During the earlier Heian period, from the years 794 to 1185, the power of the shoguns was far less than that of the emperor.
D - Many Japanese followed the shogun because the feared his power and not because they were loyal.

2. The socioeconomic status of its family has often been cynically proposed as the determining the factor of a child’s later intellectual prowess. To test the validity of this belief, infants from underprivileged families were removed from their homes and placed in special schools, where they were taught relatively advanced subjects from the time they were only three months old. These children had an average IQ of 110 by the time they reached school age. It would seem then, that it is the degree of prekindergarten education the child has received rather than the socioeconomic level of its parents that determines future intelligence. The author’s method of argument is to
A - Cite specific evidence that supports her own conclusion.
B - Disprove the statistics presented by opponents.
C - Present an alternative conclusion that explains the same evidence.
D - Argue that children from poorer backgrounds are actually more intelligent than those from richer backgrounds.

3. In our society, personality is considered an expression of individuality. We like to see ourselves as self-created, distinct from the influences of the past, bent upon our own development as self. Effects upon us are viewed as intrusions. But in the tribal society of the Bambara peoples, personality is the sum of many parts-less an individual phenomenon that is a reflection of the family, less a single unit than an integer of a larger, sustaining tribal identity. Personality is richer because it is not self-centered, mature because it benefits from diversity, and stronger because it draws its strength from the clan. The argument designed to emphasize the supposed interrelationship between
A - Individually of expression and development of the self.
B - Development of the self and the intrusion of outside effects.
C - Richness of a personality and integration in a society.
D - Diversity of personality and self-centeredness.

4. Experts in the American political process have long agreed that voters like a certain amount of combativeness, even aggressiveness, in a presidential candidate. A poll just after the 1988 election, however, showed that many people had been annoyed or disgusted with the campaign and had not even bothered to vote. In addition, many voters felt that most candidates were “nonpresidential.” Campaigns that feature combativeness have, therefore, become counterproductive by causing voters to lose respect for the combative candidate. Which one of the fallowing, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
A - Political campaigning is a means of giving voters essential information on which they must base their decisions.
B - Many presidential campaigns have been memorable because they were full of surprises.
C - What seems to be aggressiveness is really assertiveness, a necessary quality for keeping one’s name in the public eye.
D - The poll cited does not specifically show that combative campaigning was responsible for voter disaffection.

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