Logical reasoning PrepTest 113 · Section 4 · Question 11

Question prompt

Lydia: Red squirrels are 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

Argument/Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed/Flawed

Question Type

Weaken Questions

Stimulus Summary

L: Phenomenon - Red squirrels make holes in sugar maple trees and drink the sap
Potential explanations - They’re after sugar or water (the only components of the sap)
Premise - Water is easily available elsewhere in the area
Conclusion - They’re after the sugar
G: There’s so little sugar in the sap, so they’re probably after something other than sugar.

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us to undermine Galina’s rebuttal, so we should focus there. Why does Galina believe that Lydia’s explanation is wrong - that the red squirrels aren’t after the sugar in the sap?
Because there’s so little sugar in the sap that they’d need to drink an “enormous” amount of it to get “any significant” amount of sugar. Remember that on the LSAT, “significant” means enough to matter, so this is saying they’d need to drink an enormous amount to get enough sugar for it to matter - which is a minimum threshold!
To weaken this, there are two avenues. One is to establish that the squirrels don’t have much of an option but to drink an enormous amount - maybe they need sugar, and this is the only source. The other is to show that squirrels can get around the problem somehow and drink less than an enormous amount to get a significant amount of sugar. Let’s stay flexible as we analyze the answers.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Squirrels are known to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    This answer doesn’t speak to how they feel about foods with low concentrations of sugar, so it’s out of scope.
  2. B
    Once a hole in Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    This doesn’t speak to why they’re doing it, just that they all tend to drink from the same tree.
  3. C
    Trees other than sugar Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    This is a tempting answer! However, it still doesn’t address the very low concentration of sugar in these trees - the squirrels still have the problem of needing to consume an “enormous” amount to get any significant amount of sugar. It also doesn’t tie the behavior to the concentration of sugar - these other trees may be less common in the area, for instance, or have much harder bark!
  4. D
    Red squirrels leave the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    This answer addresses the problem that Galina raises. She says that the squirrels would need to “drink” an “enormous” amount of sap to get enough sugar to make it worth it. If, however, the squirrels have a way of increasing the concentration of sugar in the sap (by letting “much of the water” evaporate), then they would need to consume less of it to get a significant amount of sugar. This undercuts Galina’s argument by raising a solution to her problem, so it’s the correct answer.
  5. E
    During the season when Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    This answer calls into question the wisdom of digging holes in bark to get at the sap in the winter, but it doesn’t address the question of why the red squirrels are trying to get the sap in the first place.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 4%
  3. C 16%
  4. D Credited 74%
  5. E 1%

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