How CLAT Logical Reasoning Works — Practice

Question 1

Passage: Reading fiction has been shown to improve empathy. Empathy is essential for good leadership. Companies should therefore encourage their managers to read fiction.
What is the main conclusion of the argument?
(a) Reading fiction improves empathy (b) Companies should encourage their managers to read fiction (c) Empathy is essential for good leadership (d) Managers generally lack empathy

Accepted Answer

(b) Companies should encourage their managers to read fiction.

The first two sentences are premises; 'therefore' signals the claim they support — that companies should encourage managers to read fiction. That is the conclusion.

Question 2

Passage: The bridge must be closed for repairs, because engineers found cracks in its supports, and a cracked support can fail without warning.
Which statement is the conclusion of the argument?
(a) Engineers found cracks in the supports (b) A cracked support can fail without warning (c) The bridge must be closed for repairs (d) Repairs will be expensive

Accepted Answer

(c) The bridge must be closed for repairs.

'Because' introduces the two premises (the cracks and the risk of sudden failure). The claim they are offered to support — that the bridge must be closed — is the conclusion.

Question 3

Passage: Every student who attended the extra maths classes passed the final exam. The school has decided to make the extra classes compulsory to ensure everyone passes.
The school's plan assumes that:
(a) The extra classes were the reason those students passed (b) Maths is the hardest subject (c) Every student wants to pass (d) The extra classes are free of charge

Accepted Answer

(a) The extra classes were the reason those students passed.

Making the classes compulsory will 'ensure everyone passes' only if the classes actually caused the passing. If the attendees would have passed anyway, the plan does not follow — so the argument depends on that assumption.

Question 4

Passage: In Town A, a ban on plastic bags was followed by a sharp fall in litter. The mayor concludes that the ban caused the fall in litter.
Which, if true, most strengthens the mayor's conclusion?
(a) Plastic bags are cheap to produce (b) No other anti-litter measure was introduced in Town A during that period (c) Some shopkeepers opposed the ban (d) Litter is a problem in many towns

Accepted Answer

(b) No other anti-litter measure was introduced in Town A during that period.

Ruling out alternative causes makes it far likelier that the ban — and not some other measure — produced the fall in litter, strengthening the causal conclusion.

Question 5

Passage: Employees who use the company gym take fewer sick days. Therefore, using the gym makes employees healthier and so reduces their sick days.
Which, if true, most weakens the argument?
(a) The gym is free for all employees (b) Employees who are already healthy and rarely fall ill are the ones who choose to use the gym (c) The gym opens early each morning (d) Sick days are paid in full

Accepted Answer

(b) Employees who are already healthy... choose to use the gym.

This offers an alternative explanation: healthy people self-select into using the gym, so the gym need not be causing the lower sick days. Undercutting the causal link weakens the argument.

Question 6

Passage: The new principal took over last year, and this year the school's exam results improved. Clearly, the new principal is responsible for the better results.
The reasoning is most vulnerable to the criticism that it:
(a) Relies on the opinion of an expert (b) Assumes that because one event followed another, the first must have caused the second (c) Uses a sample that is too small (d) Contradicts its own premises

Accepted Answer

(b) Assumes that because one event followed another, the first caused the second.

The results improving after the principal arrived does not prove the principal caused it — other factors could explain it. Treating mere sequence as cause is the post hoc flaw.

Question 7

Passage: Every book in the school's reference section may be read inside the library but may not be borrowed. The atlas Rahul wants is in the reference section.
Which of the following must be true?
(a) Rahul may borrow the atlas overnight (b) Rahul may read the atlas in the library but may not borrow it (c) The atlas is the only book in the reference section (d) Rahul no longer needs the atlas

Accepted Answer

(b) Rahul may read the atlas in the library but may not borrow it.

The atlas is in the reference section, and every reference book may be read in the library but not borrowed. Applying the rule to the atlas gives (b) with certainty; the others are not guaranteed.

Question 8

Passage: You cannot trust his review of the restaurant — he owns a competing restaurant, so of course he would criticise it.
Which argument uses most nearly the same reasoning?
(a) The medicine must work, because thousands of people buy it (b) Ignore her praise of the phone — she is paid by the company that makes it, so she is bound to praise it (c) The bridge is safe because qualified engineers inspected it (d) He is very tall, so he must be good at basketball

Accepted Answer

(b) Ignore her praise of the phone — she is paid by the company...

Both arguments dismiss a claim by pointing to the speaker's personal interest or bias rather than addressing the substance. That shared structure — rejecting a view because of who holds it — makes (b) the parallel.

Practice — How CLAT Logical Reasoning Works

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