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LSAT--- Dracula

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by ssgmatter » Mon Apr 05, 2010 8:55 am
Any explanation for this tough one?????????

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula portrayed
vampires-the "undead" who roam at night to suck the
blood of living people-as able to turn into bats. As a
result of the pervasive influence of this novel, many
people now assume that a vampire's being able to turn
into a bat is an essential part of vampire myths.
However, this assumption is false, for vampire myths
existed in Europe long before Stoker's book.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which
the argument depends?
(A) At least one of the European vampire myths that
predated Stoker's book did not portray
vampires as strictly nocturnal.
(B) Vampire myths in Central and South America,
where real vampire bats are found, portray
vampires as able to turn into bats.
(C) Vampire myths did not exist outside Europe
before the publication of Stoker's Dracula.
(D) At least one of the European vampire myths that
predated Stoker's book did not portray
vampires as able to turn into bats.
(E) At the time he wrote Dracula, Stoker was
familiar with earlier European vampire myths.
Best-
Amit
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by thephoenix » Mon Apr 05, 2010 9:30 am
is it d
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by harshavardhanc » Mon Apr 05, 2010 10:06 am
ssgmatter wrote:Any explanation for this tough one?????????

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula portrayed
vampires-the "undead" who roam at night to suck the
blood of living people-as able to turn into bats. As a
result of the pervasive influence of this novel, many
people now assume that a vampire's being able to turn
into a bat is an essential part of vampire myths.
However, this assumption is false, for vampire myths
existed in Europe long before Stoker's book.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which
the argument depends?
(A) At least one of the European vampire myths that
predated Stoker's book did not portray
vampires as strictly nocturnal.
(B) Vampire myths in Central and South America,
where real vampire bats are found, portray
vampires as able to turn into bats.
(C) Vampire myths did not exist outside Europe
before the publication of Stoker's Dracula.
(D) At least one of the European vampire myths that
predated Stoker's book did not portray
vampires as able to turn into bats.
(E) At the time he wrote Dracula, Stoker was
familiar with earlier European vampire myths.
IMO D as well.

*Vampires turn into bats -> portrayed in the Novel
*many people now assume that turning into bats essential for vampire.
*assumption false because vampire myths existed long before novel.

i.e author thinks that assumptions are false because myths originated long before novel and DID not contain this turning-into-bat thing. The thing portrayed in the novel is just an add-on to the original myths and is not essential.
Regards,
Harsha
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by paddle_sweep » Sun Apr 18, 2010 9:18 pm
Could you somebody post the OA with explanation?
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by reply2spg » Wed Apr 21, 2010 12:57 pm
I am leaning towards E
ssgmatter wrote:Any explanation for this tough one?????????

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula portrayed
vampires-the "undead" who roam at night to suck the
blood of living people-as able to turn into bats. As a
result of the pervasive influence of this novel, many
people now assume that a vampire's being able to turn
into a bat is an essential part of vampire myths.
However, this assumption is false, for vampire myths
existed in Europe long before Stoker's book.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which
the argument depends?
(A) At least one of the European vampire myths that
predated Stoker's book did not portray
vampires as strictly nocturnal.
(B) Vampire myths in Central and South America,
where real vampire bats are found, portray
vampires as able to turn into bats.
(C) Vampire myths did not exist outside Europe
before the publication of Stoker's Dracula.
(D) At least one of the European vampire myths that
predated Stoker's book did not portray
vampires as able to turn into bats.
(E) At the time he wrote Dracula, Stoker was
familiar with earlier European vampire myths.
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by Domnu » Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:02 pm
IMO, the answer is D

[spoiler]However, this assumption is false.... "this assumption" refers to the vampire turning into a bat.

A: we don't care about nocturnal vampires. we only care about vampires turning into bats.
B: irrelevant... this can't help us. if anything, it would lead away from the assumption made.
C: this leads away from the assumption made.
D: makes sense.
E: what happens if stoker is familiar with these myths? nothing.[/spoiler]
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by tpr-becky » Wed Apr 21, 2010 10:15 pm
IMO it is D because you need a link between the fact that "it isn't true that vampires turn into bats" and the fact that Myths pre-date Stoker's stories. The only answer that provides this link is D.
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by Testluv » Wed Apr 21, 2010 10:51 pm
As Becky points out, a great way of doing this is to find the mismatched ideas between the conclusion, and evidence, and then to bridge them.

Because this is a necessary assumption question, we can also use the Kaplan denial test to prove that choice D is a necessary assumption.

Basically, the author is arguing that Stoker's book was the first time that vampires were portrayed as being able to turn into bats.

Choice D reads:

(D) At least one of the European vampire myths that predated Stoker's book did not portray vampires as able to turn into bats.

The denial of this would be:

At least one of the European vampire myths that predated Stoker's book DID portray vampires as able to turn into bats.

If that's true, then the author's argument falls apart. Because, in the absence of choice D, the argument falls apart, choice D is a premise on which the argument depends--a necessary assumption.
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by lsatprincess » Fri Jul 27, 2012 8:19 pm
The author states that "many people now assume that being able to turn into a bat is an essential part of vampire myths." I took this to mean that people now assume that being able to turn into a bat is now a necessary condition of myths. The author claims that this assumption is false. So, in other words being able to turn into a bat is not necessary component of vampire myths. So, if myths existed in Europe long before Stoker's book, as the author stated, we have to assume that they did not portray vampire as being able to turn into a bat.

This proves the author's conclusion that being able to turn into a bat is not an essential (required) part of vampire myths since those myths that existed in Europe did not include vampire turning into bats.
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by umeshpatil » Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:40 pm
@Testluv, I find bit difficulty in applying denial test to each option. Can you please elaborate more on how to create -ve sentences while using denial test ?
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