LSAT 107 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q1

LR Question 1 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Combustion of gasoline in automobile engines produces…

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: The environmentalists’ proposal is that we should replace gasoline with methanol.

REASONING: Gasoline produces benzene when burned and methanol does not. (But methanol also produces formaldehyde)

ANALYSIS: To strengthen the argument we should either show that benzene is dangerous or that formaldehyde is fairly safe.

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1. So? Diesel is irrelevant. We’re trying to decide if gasoline should be replaced with methanol.
2. This weakens the environmentalists’ proposal slightly. Gasoline in the future might not need to be replaced.
3. So? Methanol is also automobile fuel. Maybe those regions could produce that instead.
4. CORRECT. The main drawback of the environmentalists’ proposal is that methanol produces formaldehyde. But if formaldehyde is less dangerous than benzene then perhaps methanol is safer than gasoline. 
5. This weakens the environmentalists’ argument that we should use methanol.