FREE LSAT® PRACTICE QUESTIONS

Literary historian: William Shakespeare, a humble actor, could have written the love poetry attributed to him. But the dramas attributed to him evince such insight into the minds of powerful rulers that they could only have been written by one who had spent much time among them; Francis Bacon associated with rulers, but Shakespeare did not.

Which one of the following logically follows from the literary historian’s claims?

• A. Bacon wrote the dramas attributed to Shakespeare, but could not have written the love poetry.
• B. Bacon wrote both the love poetry and the dramas attributed to Shakespeare.
• C. Shakespeare wrote neither the love poetry nor the dramas attributed to him.
• D. One person could not have written both the love poetry and the dramas attributed to Shakespeare.
• E. Shakespeare may have written the love poetry but did not write the dramas attributed to him.

Futurist: Artists in the next century will be supported largely by private patrons. Because these patrons will almost invariably be supporters of the social order—whatever it happens to be at the time—art in the next century will rarely express social and political doctrines that are perceived to be subversive of that social order.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, provides the most support for the futurist’s inference?

• A. Art patrons tend not to support artists whose art expresses social and political views that are in opposition to their own.
• B. Art patrons tend to be more interested in formal artistic problems than in the social and political issues of their time.
• C. Artists are as prone to attack the contemporary social and political order in their work as they are to defend it.
• D. Artists tend to become more critical of contemporary social and political arrangements after they are freed of their dependency on private patrons.
• E. Art patrons tend to oppose all social change except that initiated by artists.

Air traffic controllers and nuclear power plant operators are not allowed to work exceptionally long hours, because to do so would jeopardize lives. Yet physicians in residency training are typically required to work 80-hour weeks. The aforementioned restrictions on working exceptionally long hours should also be applied to resident physicians, since they too are engaged in work of a life-or-death nature.

Which one of the following is an assumption the argument depends on?

• A. There is no indispensable aspect of residency training that requires resident physicians to work exceptionally long hours.
• B. Resident physicians have a more direct effect on the lives of others than do air traffic controllers and nuclear power plant operators.
• C. The more hours one works in a week, the less satisfactorily one performs one’s work.
• D. Those who are not engaged in work that has life-or-death consequences should only sometimes be allowed to work exceptionally long hours.
• E. Some resident physicians would like to complete their residency training without working exceptionally long hours.

Roger Bacon, the thirteenth-century scientist, is said to have made important discoveries in optics. He was an early advocate of hands-on experimentation, and as a teacher warned his students against relying uncritically on the opinions of authorities. Nevertheless, this did not stop Bacon himself from appealing to authority when it was expedient for his own argumentation. Thus, Bacon’s work on optics should be generally disregarded, in view of the contradiction between his statements and his own behavior.

The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument

• A. presumes, without providing justification, that authority opinion is often incorrect
• B. attacks Bacon’s uncritical reliance on authority opinion
• C. uses Bacon’s remarks to his students as evidence of his opinions
• D. ignores the fact that thirteenth-century science may not hold up well today
• E. criticizes Bacon’s character in order to question his scientific findings

The ability to access information via computer is a tremendous resource for visually impaired people. Only a limited amount of printed information is accessible in braille, large type, or audiotape. But a person with the right hardware and software can access a large quantity of information from libraries and museums around the world, and can have the computer read the information aloud, display it in large type, or produce a braille version. Thus, visually impaired people can now access information from computers more easily than they can from most traditional sources.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

• A. A computerized speech synthesizer is often less expensive than a complete library of audiotapes.
• B. Relatively easy-to-use computer systems that can read information aloud, display it in large type, or produce a braille version of it are widely available.
• C. Many visually impaired people prefer traditional sources of information to computers that can read information aloud, display it in large type, or produce a braille version of it.
• D. Most visually impaired people who have access to information via computer also have access to this same information via more traditional sources.
• E. The rate at which printed information is converted into formats easily accessible to visually impaired people will increase.

Many physicists claim that quantum mechanics may ultimately be able to explain all fundamental phenomena, and that, therefore, physical theory will soon be complete. However, every theory in the history of physics that was thought to be final eventually had to be rejected for failure to explain some new observation. For this reason, we can expect that quantum mechanics will not be the final theory.

Which one of the following arguments is most similar in its reasoning to the argument above?

• A. Only a few species of plants now grow in very dry climates; therefore, few species of animals can live in those climates.
• B. Four companies have marketed a new food processing product; therefore, a fifth company will not be able to market a similar product.
• C. Your sister is a very good chess player but she has never won a chess tournament; therefore, she will not win this chess tournament.
• D. A rare virus infected a group of people a decade ago; therefore, it will not reinfect the same population now.
• E. Each team member has failed to live up to people’s expectations; therefore, the team will not live up to people’s expectations.

Questions 7-9 are based on the following scenario. 

A reporter is trying to uncover the workings of a secret committee. The committee has six members—French, Ghauri, Hsia, Irving, Magnus, and Pinsky—each of whom serves on at least one subcommittee. There are three subcommittees, each having three members, about which the following is known:

One of the committee members serves on all three subcommittees.

French does not serve on any subcommittee with Ghauri.

Hsia does not serve on any subcommittee with Irving.

If French does not serve on any subcommittee with Magnus, which one of the following must be true?

• A. French serves on a subcommittee with Hsia.
• B. French serves on a subcommittee with Irving.
• C. Irving serves on a subcommittee with Pinsky.
• D. Magnus serves on a subcommittee with Ghauri.
• E. Magnus serves on a subcommittee with Irving.

Questions 7-9 are based upon the following scenario.

A reporter is trying to uncover the workings of a secret committee. The committee has six members—French, Ghauri, Hsia, Irving, Magnus, and Pinsky—each of whom serves on at least one subcommittee. There are three subcommittees, each having three members, about which the following is known:

One of the committee members serves on all three subcommittees.

French does not serve on any subcommittee with Ghauri.

Hsia does not serve on any subcommittee with Irving.

If Pinsky serves on every subcommittee on which French serves and every subcommittee on which Ghauri serves, then which one of the following could be true? 

• A. Magnus serves on every subcommittee on which French serves and every subcommittee on which Ghauri serves.
• B. Magnus serves on every subcommittee on which Hsia serves and every subcommittee on which Irving serves.
• C. Hsia serves on every subcommittee on which French serves and every subcommittee on which Ghauri serves.
• D. French serves on every subcommittee on which Pinsky serves.
• E. Hsia serves on every subcommittee on which Pinsky serves.

Questions 7-9 are based upon the following scenario.

A reporter is trying to uncover the workings of a secret committee. The committee has six members—French, Ghauri, Hsia, Irving, Magnus, and Pinsky—each of whom serves on at least one subcommittee. There are three subcommittees, each having three members, about which the following is known:

One of the committee members serves on all three subcommittees.

French does not serve on any subcommittee with Ghauri.

Hsia does not serve on any subcommittee with Irving.

If Irving serves on every subcommittee on which Magnus serves, which one of the following could be true? 

• A. Magnus serves on all of the subcommittees.
• B. Irving serves on more than one subcommittee.
• C. Irving serves on every subcommittee on which Pinsky serves.
• D. French serves on a subcommittee with Magnus.
• E. Ghauri serves on a subcommittee with Magnus.

Cox: The consumer council did not provide sufficient justification for its action when it required that Derma-35 be recalled from the market.

Crockett: I disagree. Derma-35 in fact causes inflammation, but in citing only the side effect of blemishes as the justification for its decision, the council rightly acknowledged that blemishes are a legitimate health concern.

Cox and Crockett disagree over whether

• A. Derma-35 should remain on the market
• B. blemishes are sometimes caused by inflammation
• C. the council based its decision on the threat of inflammation or on the threat of blemishes
• D. the council gave an adequate reason for its decision to recall Derma-35
• E. inflammation is a serious health threat

Psychologist: Because of a perceived social stigma against psychotherapy, and because of age discrimination on the part of some professionals, some elderly people feel discouraged about trying psychotherapy. They should not be, however, for many younger people have greatly benefited from it, and people in later life have certain advantages over the young—such as breadth of knowledge, emotional maturity, and interpersonal skills—that contribute to the likelihood of a positive outcome.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the psychologist’s argument?

• A. Certain psychotherapists practice age discrimination.
• B. Elderly people are better able to benefit from psychotherapy than are younger people.
• C. Elderly people should not be reluctant to undergo psychotherapy.
• D. Characteristics associated with maturity are important factors in psychotherapy’s success.
• E. Elderly people are less inclined to try psychotherapy than are younger people.

Psychologist: Some people contend that children should never be reprimanded. Any criticism, let alone punishment, they say, harms children’s self-esteem. This view is laudable in its challenge to the belief that children should be punished whenever they misbehave, yet it gives a dangerous answer to the question of how often punishment should be inflicted. When parents never reprimand their children, they are in effect rewarding them for unacceptable behavior, and rewarded behavior tends to recur.

The view that children should never be reprimanded functions in the psychologist’s argument as a statement of a position that the psychologist’s argument

• A. is designed to discredit entirely
• B. is designed to establish as true
• C. is designed to establish as well intentioned
• D. claims has a serious flaw though is not without value
• E. claims is less reasonable than any other view mentioned