Prompt: Which one of the following most accurately expresses the conclusion of the argument?
Difficulty: 🌕🌑🌑🌑
How will the right answer fit in terms of support and conclusion?
Only the right answer will match the conclusion you highlight in the passage.
Highlight the main conclusion in the passage, if there is one:
that may be more of a paradise for banks than for their customers.
[BACKGROUND]. But [CONCLUSION]. [SUPPORT].
The passage starts with some outsiders’ take on an issue, which tips us off that the author’s conclusion will be that they disagree. You can recognize this pattern coming anytime you see a statement that sounds like, “Some people say…”, along the lines of what “visionaries foresee” in this passage.
Map the wording of the answers to the wording of the passage:
(A) In the near future, bank customers will…
This sounds like the support at the end, not the conclusion.
(B) …may be more beneficial to banks than to their customers.
This matches the comparison the author makes in the conclusion, and all the details of “Enabling bank customers…” maps to wording used in the passage.
(C) As banks eliminate branch offices…
This is the support given at the end. A good reminder that just because it’s at the end does NOT make it the “conclusion”.
(D) …would benefit the banking industry.
Careful, the conclusion specifically says it’ll better for banks “than for their customers”. This leaves that comparative bit out, so it’s changing the meaning of the conclusion.
(E) …would allow banks to eliminate…
This is misquoting the passage, and the part it’s misquoting isn’t the conclusion anyway.
(B) is the correct answer.
Common pattern/s in this question: Background info that sounds like “Some people say…” is the most common pattern in LSAT passages. Recognizing that will keep you nicely grounded in the argument structure, even when the details get a lot more complex than they did in this one.
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