LSAT-TEST Online Practice Questions and Answers

Forty years ago, hardly anybody thought about going to court to sue somebody. A person could bump a pedestrian with his Chrysler Airflow and the victim would say something like, "No harm done," and walk away. Ipso facto. No filing of codicils, taking of depositions or polling the jury. Attorneys need not apply. Which one of the following sentences most logically continues the above passage?

A. The Chrysler Airflow is no longer the harmless machine it used to be.

B. Fortunately, this is still the case.

C. Unfortunately, times have changed.

D. New legislation affecting the necessity for codicils is a sign of the times.

E. But now, as we know, law schools are full of eager young people.

Nutritionist: Recent studies show that the height of the average American has increased 2 inches in the past 10 years, lending support to the view that modern foods stimulate growth.

This argument would be weakened most by pointing out that

A. statistics don't lie

B. there are too many variables in this type of study

C. the generic background of the subjects was not investigated

D. the sample group used was small

E. some people's height decreased

Quasars ?celestial objects so far away that their light takes at least 500 million years to reach Earth ?have been seen since 1963. For anything that far away to appear from Earth the way quasars do, it would have to burn steadily at a rate that produces more light than 90 billion suns would produce. But nothing that burns at a rate that produces that much light could exist for more than about 100 million years.

If the statements above are true, which one of the following must also be true on the basis of them?

A. Instruments in use before 1963 were not sensitive enough to permit quasars to be seen.

B. Light from quasars first began reaching Earth in 1963.

C. Anything that, from Earth appears as bright as a quasar does must produce more light than would be produced by 90 billion suns.

D. Nothing that is as far from Earth as quasars are can continue to exist for more than about 100 million years.

E. No quasar that has ever been seen from Earth exists any longer.

One of the most vexing problems in historiography is dating an event when the usual sources offer conflicting chronologies of the event. Historians should attempt to minimize the number of competing sources, perhaps by eliminating the less credible ones. Once this is achieved and several sources are left, as often happens, historians may try, though on occasion unsuccessfully, to determine independently of the usual sources which date is more likely to be right.

Which one of the following inferences is most strongly supported by the information above?

A. We have no plausible chronology of most of the events for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date.

B. Some of the events for which there are conflicting chronologies and for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date cannot be dated reliably by historians.

C. Attaching a reliable date to any event requires determining which of several conflicting chronologies is most likely to be true.

D. Determining independently of the usual sources which of several conflicting chronologies is more likely to be right is an ineffective way of dating events.

E. The soundest approach to dating an event for which the usual sources give conflicting chronologies is to undermine the credibility of as many of these sources as possible.

At a concert, exactly eight compositions -- F, H, L, O, P, R, S, and T -- are to be performed exactly once

each, consecutively and one composition at a time. The order of their performance must satisfy the

following conditions:

T is performed either immediately before F or immediately after R.

At least two compositions are performed either after F and before R, or after R and before F. O is

performed either first or fifth. The eighth composition performed is either L or H. P is performed at some

time before S. At least one composition is performed either after O and before S, or after S and before O.

If S is performed fourth, which one of the following could be an accurate list of the compositions performed

first, second, and third, respectively?

A. F, H, P

B. H, P, L

C. O, P, R

D. O.P.T

E. P, R,T

Cigarette companies claim that manufacturing both low-and high-nicotine cigarettes allows smokers to choose how much nicotine they want. However, a recent study has shown that the levels of nicotine found in the blood of smokers who smoke one pack of cigarettes per day are identical at the end of a day's worth of smoking, whatever the level of nicotine in the cigarettes they smoke.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the finding of the nicotine study?

A. Blood cannot absorb more nicotine per day than that found in the smoke from a package of the lowest-nicotine cigarettes available.

B. Smokers of the lowest-nicotine cigarettes available generally smoke more cigarettes per day than smokers of high-nicotine cigarettes.

C. Most nicotine is absorbed into the blood of a smoker even if it is delivered in smaller quantities.

D. The level of tarin cigarettes is higher in lownicotine cigarettes than it is in some high-nicotine cigarettes.

E. When taking in nicotine by smoking cigarettes is discontinued, the level of nicotine in the blood decreases steadily.

A test that examines people on their memory capacity for spatial layouts has placed Jason in the top 1 percentile of all test-takers. We can conclude from this that his memory capacity for things that do not involve spatial layouts will be below average. The conclusion follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?

A. Jason tried hard to remember spatial layouts.

B. Jason has a greater proclivity to remember spatial layouts than most people.

C. It is possible for Jason to improve, through practice and effort, his memory capacity for things that do not involve spatial layouts.

D. The total memory capacity of the human brain is fixed and equal for all people.

E. Some people have a greater memory capacity than others.

The village of Vestmannaeyjar, in the far northern country of Iceland, is as bright and clean and up-to-date as any American or Canadian suburb. It is located on the island of Heimaey, just off the mainland. One January night in 1973, however, householders were shocked from their sleep. In some backyards red-hot liquid was spurting from the ground. Flaming "skyrockets" shot up and over the houses. The island's volcano, Helgafell, silent for seven thousand years, was violently erupting! Luckily, the island's fishing fleet was in port, and within twenty-four hours almost everyone was ferried to the mainland. But then the agony of the island began in earnest. As in a nightmare, fountains of burning lava spurted three hundred feet high. Black, baseball-size cinders rained down. An evil-smelling, eye-burning, throat-searing cloud of smoke and gas erupted into the air, and a river of lava flowed down the mountain. The constant shriek of escaping steam was punctuated by ear-splitting explosions. As time went on, the once pleasant village of Vestmannaeyjar took on a weird aspect. Its street lamps still burning against the long Arctic night, the town lay under a thick blanket of cinders. All that could be seen above the ten-foot black drifts were the tips of street signs. Some houses had collapsed under the weight of cinders; others had burst into flames as the heat ignited their oil storage tanks. Lighting the whole lurid scene, fire continued to shoot from the mouth of the looming volcano.

The eruption continued for six months. Scientists and reporters arrived from around the world to observe the awesome natural event. But the town did not die that easily. In July, when the eruption ceased, the people of Heimaey Island returned to assess the chances of rebuilding their homes and lives. They found tons of ash covering the ground. The Icelanders are a tough people, however, accustomed to the strange and violent nature of their Arctic land. They dug out their homes. They even used the cinders to build new roads and airport runways. Now the new homes of Heimaey are warmed from water pipes heated by molten lava.

The color of the hot liquid was

A. orange

B. black

C. yellow

D. red

E. gray

Donna Haraway's Primate Visions is the most ambitious book on the history of science yet written from a feminist perspective, embracing not only the scientific construction of gender but also the interplay of race, class, and colonial and postcolonial culture with the "Western" construction of the very concept of nature itself. Primatology is a particularly apt vehicle for such themes because primates seem so much like ourselves that they provide ready material for scientists' conscious and unconscious projections of their beliefs about nature and culture.

Haraway's most radical departure is to challenge the traditional disjunction between the active knower (scientist/historian) and the passive object (nature/history). In Haraway's view, the desire to understand nature, whether in order to tame it or to preserve it as a place of wild innocence, is based on a troublingly masculinist and colonialist view of nature as an entity distinct from us and subject to our control. She argues that it is a view that is no longer politically, ecologically, or even scientifically viable. She proposes an approach that not only recognizes diverse human actors (scientists, government officials, laborers, science fiction writers) as contributing to our knowledge of nature, but that also recognizes the creatures usually subsumed under nature (such as primates) as active participants in creating that knowledge as well. Finally, she insists that the perspectives afforded by these different agents cannot be reduced to a single, coherent reality ?there are necessarily only multiple, interlinked, partial realities.

This iconoclastic view is reflected in Haraway's unorthodox writing style. Haraway does not weave the many different elements of her work into one unified, overarching Story of Primatology; they remain distinct voices that will not succumb to a master narrative. This fragmented approach to historiography is familiar enough in historiographical theorizing but has rarely been put into practice by historians of science. It presents a complex alternative to traditional history, whether strictly narrative or narrative with emphasis on a causal argument. Haraway is equally innovative in the way she incorporates broad cultural issues into her analysis. Despite decades of rhetoric from historians of science about the need to unite issues deemed "internal" to science (scientific theory and practice) and those considered "external" to it (social issues, structures, and beliefs), that dichotomy has proven difficult to set aside. Haraway simply ignores it. The many readers in whom this separation is deeply ingrained may find her discussions of such popular sources as science fiction, movies, and television distracting, and her statements concerning such issues as nuclear war bewildering and digressive. To accept her approach one must shed a great many assumptions about what properly belongs to the study of science.

The author uses the term "rhetoric" in last paragraph most probably in order to do which one of the following?

A. underscore the importance of clear and effective writing in historiographical works

B. highlight the need for historians of science to study modes of language

C. emphasize the fact that historians of science have been unable to put innovative ideas into practice

D. criticize the excessive concern for form over content in the writings of historians of science

E. characterize the writing style and analytical approach employed by Haraway

Jane works at a fashion design company, and is having problems getting dressed for work.

She refuses to wear any color combination that does not go well together as many of her clients may look

down upon this. She has two pairs of skirts, brown and blue; three blouses, white, sky blue, and gray; four

pairs of stockings, red, black, brown, and blue; and two pairs of shoes, black and brown.

The blue skirt cannot be worn with red or brown stockings. Gray does not go well with brown. Black does

not go well with brown.

If Jane is color blind and is unable to determine what outfits went well together, how many possible

clothing combinations could she have?

A. 24

B. 32

C. 36

D. 44

E. 48