PrepTest 135

[lcid:3638] Prep Test 135 LSAT — Reading Comp — S3 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 20-27  .        As part of an international effort to address  . environmental problems resulting from agricultural  . overproduction, Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Environmental problems from overproduction in Europe (depleted nutrients, fertilization encourages problem weeds) and some solutions (replace topsoil, end production, accelerated restoration)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Cause-and-effect relationships, according to the author:
      • Overproduction causes the depletion of nutrients, among other environmental problems (first and second sentences)
      • Overfertilization causes the growth of problem weeds, which make it difficult for native plants to establish themselves (third sentence)
    • Author's view:
      • The quickest solution is removing and replacing the topsoil, but that is impractical on a large scale (fourth sentence)
      • Most people believe that doing nothing will allow the soil to restore itself, but the Netherlands study is trying to accelerate this natural rehab (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "environmental problems" (first sentence); "will be difficult" (second sentence); "problem weeds" (third sentence); "impractical" (fourth sentence); "generally believed" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Netherlands study described (plots planted with native grasses/herbs have fewer thistles)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the study:
      • One the control plots planted with nothing or corn, thistles became dominant; on the plots planted with native grasses/herbs, thistles were forced out (first through last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Conclusion from additional stage of the Netherlands study (spreading beneficial microorganisms and native herbs/grasses restores soil more quickly)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the study:
      • Researchers spread untouched soil (which has beneficial microorganisms) into the plots and found the plots with native herbs/grasses and the soil fared better than plots with just native herbs/grasses, but not as well as unfarmed soil (first and second sentences)
    • Researchers' view:
      • Farmed soil has harmful organisms and no good ones, so we can accelerate soil's restoration by returning beneficial microorganisms (which fight the harmful organisms) and native herbs/grasses (third through last sentences)
    • Examples of beneficial organisms, according to the author:
      • Nematodes, mycorrhiza (first and third sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "beneficial microorganisms" (first sentence); "preliminary results" (fourth sentence); "hinges on" (fourth sentence)

Main Point: Studies by researchers in the Netherlands have shown that the natural restoration of ecological health can be accelerated by sowing beneficial microorganisms into the soil while planting a wide variety of native seeds.

Meta-Structure?

Problem/Solution: This passage is an interesting variation on the Problem/Solution Meta-Structure. It introduces a problem — the environmental problems associated with agricultural overproduction — and it explores a spectrum of solutions. These vary from the non-workable (removing and replacing all of the topsoil) to the slow (do nothing and let nature run its course) to the speculative one promoted by the study from the Netherlands.

In general, the main point of a Problem/Solution passage will be the author's preferred solution or, absent that, their opinion on the main solution. In this case, the author doesn't really express their preference for or even their opinion on any of the solutions. Therefore, the main point will simply summarize the solution that the passage dedicates the most space to — the speculative solution from the Netherlands studies. We'll need to make sure the main point mentions that any conclusions drawn from the study are held by those researchers, not the author. Those conclusions are summarized in the last sentence of the passage, which we used to construct our anticipated main point.

Last Thoughts?

Each paragraph involves a lot of detail and will require a lot of checking in the questions. In Paragraph 1, that's the list of contributing factors to the problem and the different solutions noted. In Paragraph 2, there are the differences between the four types of plots and their results. In Paragraph 3, that's micro...mycro...mycorrhiza? It's the difficult details around the harmful microorganisms, especially since the paragraph also talks about beneficial microorganisms. Let's be sure to rely heavily on the passage to help us on the detail-oriented questions.

Question prompt

Based on the passage, 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.

Question Type

Science

Strategy Overview

Review the passage's discussion of soil used to replace topsoil, find the answer choice that must be true of that soil

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us what is most likely true of the soil used to replace topsoil. Helpfully, the question stem points out that this discussion takes place in the first paragraph. So, we can review that part of the passage to make our anticipation. However, since the question stem asks us to make an inference, the correct answer probably won't restate something from the passage. Instead, the question will likely require us to draw a connection between a few different pieces of information.Reviewing the process mentioned in the first paragraph, we'll see that it involves removing all the topsoil that has been overfarmed and replacing it (P1, S4). While this is the quickest way of restoring balance, it's also impractical at the scale of hundreds of thousands of acres (P1, S4).What was this process meant to solve? That agricultural overproduction had left the land depleted of nutrients (P1, S2) and overfertilized (P1, S3). So, we can infer that the soil replacing the existing topsoil isn't depleted of nutrients and wasn't overfertilized. Let's see if we can find an answer that says that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Thistles cannot grow in Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this say the soil replacing existing topsoil isn't depleted of nutrients and wasn't overfertilized?

    Nope. Besides, this answer choice uses the kind of bold, SCOTUS-y language ("cannot") that makes a Must Be True answer choice hard to support. For this reason, we can eliminate — or at least table — (A).

    Besides, although the passage notes that overworked farmland that is left unplanted sees thistles proliferate (P1, S3)., that doesn't mean that thistles "cannot" grow in the replacement soil. Even if they don't proliferate at the same level, it's still possible that some thistle can grow in this soil. In fact, since thistles are just plants, it would be weird if they couldn't grow in soil that allows other plants to grow.

  2. B
    It does not contain Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this say the soil replacing existing topsoil isn't depleted of nutrients and wasn't overfertilized?

    No. So, we can eliminate — or at least table — (B).

    Besides, fungi aren't mentioned until much later in the passage, so it's unlikely that they will show up in an answer about a process from Paragraph 1. Further, the passage notes that there are beneficial fungi, and that soil taken out of production has some of these fungi (P3, S1), so, if anything, this answer is contradicted by the passage.

  3. C
    It contains very few Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this say the soil replacing existing topsoil isn't depleted of nutrients and wasn't overfertilized?

    No. So, we can eliminate — or at least table — (C).

    Still, this is a popular answer choice, perhaps because, when describing the study done in the Netherlands, the passage says the researchers added native grasses and herbs to the soil (P2, S3). However, that doesn't imply that soil that hasn't been in constant use lacks native grasses and herbs — it could have some, just not enough to hit the level that would be ideal for renewing the land.

  4. D
    It does not contain Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (D) Does this say the soil replacing existing topsoil isn't depleted of nutrients and wasn't overfertilized?

    Yes! After reviewing the first paragraph, we determined that this is true, so we can confidently select (D). After all, the problem, as described in the first paragraph, is that overworked land lacks nutrients and is heavily fertilized (P1, S2-S3). The solution described is to remove that soil and replace it with other soil (P1, S4). It wouldn't make much sense that this would solve the problem if the soil used to replace the old stuff is also heavily fertilized! That'd be replacing problematic soil with more problematic soil. As such, this answer can be inferred from the passage, making it correct.

  5. E
    It was never used Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this say the soil replacing existing topsoil isn't depleted of nutrients and wasn't overfertilized?

    Nope. Besides, this answer choice uses the kind of bold, SCOTUS-y language ("never") that makes a Must Be True answer choice hard to support. After all, it's possible that soil used for growing commercial crops can eventually regain its nutrients. If someone grew corn on that land 200 years ago, it's probably no longer feeling the effects of that!

What this tests

Discussion

View all discussions Start a discussion