LSAT Question Explanation
PT 105, Section 1, Question 3
StrengthenArgument structure
The large space projects should be abandoned and we should do small ones instead.
Large projects have recently suffered setbacks and lost money.
Explanation
This is a Strengthen question, so immediately we want to look for flaws in the stimulus.
This author claims that large projects should be abandoned because of a few recent setbacks... but what about the rest of the historical data? What if large projects have generally been much better, and have just had a recent string of bad luck? This is a flaw because of the small sample size of large projects in the evidence.
Another flaw is that the author concludes that small projects should be favored... but what if those have been failing too? The conclusion is comparative but we only know from the evidence that large projects have been bad recently, we don't know if small projects have fared better or worse.
Also, maybe large projects have more impressive potential outcomes? We've talked about the downside of these projects but not the upside/benefits, and then conclude that smaller ones are better overall.
Answer choices
This has nothing to do with the conclusion, which was making a claim that said small projects should be favored over large projects. This answer choice just tells us that costs for all projects are increasing.
This answer is too weak to actually strengthen the conclusion. The author concluded that small projects should be favored over large projects, and this just tells us that the small projects are "as good" as large in some respect. Not very convincing when we're trying to prove that small projects are better.
This addresses the flaw that we identified where the author made a comparative conclusion but only addressed an aspect of one piece of the comparison (large projects have been losing money). The author never said that small projects have been more successful, or don't lose money. This answer choice would allow us to say that large projects are actually worse in that respect, not just bad.
This doesn't really matter, because it doesn't consider the effectiveness/outcomes of large vs small projects.
This doesn't tell us whether large or small projects are better, because it introduces a benefit and downside of both.