I like doing logic/reasoning tests just to help keep me sane. However, sometimes I think the question writers themselves get it wrong. In any case, what do you think about this question?
While traveling to Japan, a low-ranking US ambassador asked a Japanese official why Japanese people were so inscrutable. The official looked calm and friendly, responding in a gentle voice that he much preferred to think upon his race as inscrutable than of his race as wanting in perspicacity such as in Americans.
Of the following words, which one best describes both the attitude and the response made by the Japanese official?
A. Fearful
B. Emotional
C. Angry
D. Indifferent
E. Compassionate
They say the answer is E, Compassionate, whereas I thought none of the answers were correct, but the closest was B, Emotional - because, you know, the official is taking a huge swipe at the Americans. What do you think?
I think E was the correct answer. Two points to remember:
The LSAT often asks you to give the least-wrong answer - the writers know full well that on some questions, most people won’t like any of the answers. They want you to look past that, and identify the strongest one.
As for this question - you over-thought it, which is a classic LSAT error. No shame in it - but what you want to do on bits like this is leave common sense at the door. Focus on what’s in the question - it’s a reading-comprehension problem, after all. Words suggesting kindness and calmness - “calm”, “friendly”, and “gentle” - are used to describe the official’s response. Even if he’s being secretly snarky, the question makes it clear that the question-writer didn’t think this official was reacting out of emotion, nor out of apathy, and certainly not fear or anger. That leaves compassion as the least-stupid answer.
Odd. This seems much more like a vocabulary question than a logic/reasoning question (i.e., it basically hinges on the test-taker’s knowledge of the definition of “inscrutable” and “perspicacity”).
This… is among the worst questions I’ve ever seen on any standardized test. It makes no the slightest lick of sense.
“Compassionate”?
Really?!
Bull on that. The text acts like he’s being “calm and friendly”, which has not the slightest relationship to compassion. Meanwhile, the cut of his response actually trends to indifferent. It probably shouldn’t be emotional and shouldn’t be angry.
Frankly, if this is style and quality of question asked, I probably couldn’t pass the LSAT, but only because it must be a giant flaming dog turd. The question is vague, useless, and relies on cheap word games. I can describe a scene far better than day.
However, four of the answers are contradicted by the stimulus. He isn’t fearful, emotional, or angry, because he’s described as calm and friendly. He isn’t indifferent, because he has an opinion.
He is, in fact, acting compassionately - he’s taking a positive and understanding view of the subject of the discussion, i.e. the inscrutable Japanese.
It’s not. I’m shocked to see this question here. I teach a Kaplan course on the LSAT, so I’ve seen most of the recent questions. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this were removed from grading.
Isamu, is this by chance from an experimental/ungraded section?
I don’t know what “perspicacity” even means but I thought the E was the obvious answer because of the phrase “calm and friendly, responding in a gentle voice.” The Japanese guy feels sorry for the American because he just doesn’t get it. I think that “superior” would have been a better answer but I could only choose from the choices given.
The comment the guy makes is so insulting–in simpler words, he’s saying, “I’d rather be hard to read than be an idiot like you Americans are”–that the only sensible reading, IMO, is that his calm and gentle demeanor are being offered as examples of Japanese inscrutability. That is, he’s not at all inscrutable: he’s just couching his cut in velvet terms, as is customary in some cultures. Fearful, compassionate, and indifferent are all incorrect answers, IMO: the only correct answers would be “emotional” or, better, “angry,” since he’s giving such an insult within his official capacity.
I picked D - ‘Indifferent’ because I pictured the Japanese man giving the mental mental finger by not caring at all what the US Ambassador thinks about their culture.
I read the Japanese official as saying “wanting in the perspicacity that Americans have.” I.e., “I prefer to believe that the reason my people are difficult to understand is because we are complicated rather than just stupid.” It could be viewed as a bit insulting because it’s so over-the-top in its self-deprecation that it could be interpreted as sarcasm, but he’s not directly calling Americans stupid.
I don’t like any of the answers. I see where they’re coming from by saying E – the Japanese guy is showing compassion by not tearing the American a new one for being such a putz. But only because none of the other answers is any better, I guess I would choose E by default. The question sucks.
There are no questions like that on any LSAT I’ve ever seen and I’ve been teaching LSAT prep for 3 years now. I wouldn’t trust any test prep provider that says that’s a sample of an LSAT question.
It’s not a Reading Comp question, it’s not a Logical Reasoning (Argument) question and it’s not a Logic Game. That’s nothing like an LSAT question.
I wanted to choose “Angry” because clearly the Japanese man is taking a swipe at the American. But… he’s doing it in a “gentle” and “friendly” way, so I finally settled on “Compassionate,” even though it’s a bad choice.
I think the word that best describes the Japanese official’s response is “inscrutable” since you can’t really tell what he’s feeling. Could be anger, or superiority, or wounded pride. Unfortunately that’s not an option!
I thought this was going to be the classic law school ethics question.
A lawyer has a little old lady come in to do her will. He charges her $100 and she gives him a $100 bill. After she leaves, he realizes that there was a second $100 bill stuck to the back of the first.
