LSAT Question Explanation
PT 105, Section 4, Question 4
Necessary AssumptionArgument structure
Maude is a hypocrite.
Maude criticizes people for being materialistic, but takes good care of a watch that her grandmother gave her.
Explanation
This seems like very flawed reasoning. Taking care of a family heirloom or a treasured gift from a loved one does not make a person materialistic in my opinion. When I hear materialistic I think of someone who constantly goes shopping for designer clothes or cares too much about what kind of car they drive.
The author assumes that by caring for the watch her grandmother gifted her, Maude is being materialistic, and therefore a hypocrite.
Answer choices
This maybe explains why Maude cares for the watch but it doesn't indicate that she's materialistic and therefore isn't needed for the author's conclusion.
This tells us that Maude is materialistic based on the way she acts towards her watch. We need this to be true to make the claim that she's materialistic and a hypocrite based on the evidence in the stimulus.
This doesn't tell us anything about Maude so it's irrelevant. The stimulus didn't tell us if she cares about material things in general, and we don't care about anyone besides her.
This doesn't need to be true, the author assumed that caring for the watch alone made her materialistic.
We don't need this to be true, characteristics of people who aren't materialistic are irrelevant to this argument.