Logical reasoning PrepTest 103 · Section 3 · Question 12

Question prompt

The Levant—the area that Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Facts

Valid or Flawed

NA

Question Type

Cannot Be True Questions

Stimulus Summary

Phenomenon - Despite both being heavily populated before and having similar climates, the Southern Levant was abandoned about 6k years ago whereas the Northern Levant wasn’t
Hypothesis/Explanation - The Southern Levant saw economic collapse because of deforestation

Answer Anticipation

This stimulus falls into a common pattern that we see in argument-based questions - a Phenomenon/Explanation pattern. When they’re in argument-based questions, we generally think about alternative explanations. However, this is a Cannot be True question, and we’re told to accept the hypothesis/explanation as true. So while an alternative explanation could serve as a correct answer (after all, we know the true explanation, so an alternative, depending on how it’s phrased, might have to be false), we shouldn’t expect that.
Instead, we should see if there are any inferences we can draw, and we should check the statements to see if any can be contradicted in a correct answer.
This stimulus does rely on two common types of logic - it compares the Northern and Southern Levant, and it brings up the cause (economic collapse/deforestation) of a given change (the depopulation of the Southern Levant). While it’s hard to anticipate what a correct answer dealing with either of these statements might look like, let’s keep them in mind as we analyze the answers.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The sheep and goats Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    This answer suggests one way that deforestation might lead to economic collapse, so it certainly might be true.

  2. B
    Trees were used in Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Similar to (A), this answer suggests one way that deforestation could lead to economic collapse (as the building market fell apart), so it might be true.

  3. C
    Organic remains from the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    If anything, this answer strengthens the argument by showing that where the cause didn’t happen (deforestation), neither did the supposed effect (depopulation).

  4. D
    Carbon dating of organic Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    We’re told to treat the hypothesis as correct, so deforestation led to the depopulation of the Southern Levant. For that to happen, there must have been trees before deforestation happened - you can’t deforest if there’s no forest to begin with. As such, this answer stating that there were no forests in that area cannot be true, and it is therefore the correct answer.

  5. E
    Since there are few Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Similar to other answers, this explains how deforestation could create problems for the economy of the Southern Levant, so it certainly could be true.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 6%
  2. B 2%
  3. C 12%
  4. D Credited 79%
  5. E 2%

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