PrepTest 147

[lcid:3686] Prep Test 147 LSAT — Reading Comp — S3 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 1-6  .       In the last half-century, firefighters in  . North America have developed a powerful system for  . fighting Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Science

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • Two different approaches are outlined
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Goal - Properly deal with forest fires
    • Firefighters - Fight them all with modern technology
    • Scientists - Doing too much firefighting can be worse than not doing any since occasional fires stop them from getting out of control
    • Example - Ancient ponderosa forests
    • General rule - Fires naturally happen every 5-25 years
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • A problem is explored; a recommendation is made
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Problem - Too much firefighting has left forests (even ponderosa) open to total devastation, killing wildlife and trees, and eroding topsoil
    • Requirement/recommendation - Switch to managing fires instead of eliminating them
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • How to implement recommendation
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Fire factors - topography (fixed); weather (unpredictable); fuel
    • Should focus on fuel - most promising is selective harvesting (small trees) and prescribed fires (light fires and also let some natural ones burn under control)
Main Point:
Despite the current fire management technique of stopping all fires, a new technique of harvesting small trees and allowing certain fires to burn (or lighting them) will be better at keeping forest fires under control.

Key Lines:
Lines 1-3 - The firefighter approach is listed
Lines 3-6 - The other approach is suggested
Lines 20-23 - The problem with the first approach is described
Lines 31-35 - The alternative approach is stated
Lines 41-45 - The "most promising" approach is stated

Meta-Structure:
Problem/Solution or Goal/Approach - These two structures are strongly related, as most goals are meant to address a problem (or potential problem). Here, the problem is out of control forest fires, and the goal is to manage forests in a way that prevents them. The firefighter/current approach is to aggressively fight all fires. However, the "most promising" approach is to selectively harvest timber to cut off fuel while allowing for controlled burns.

Last Thoughts:
There are a lot of little details in this passage that should have been noted. For example, the first paragraph has a list of benefits of allowing for regular fires, while the last paragraph has a list of factors in fire behavior. Knowing where to look for these details will probably be key for a few questions, so we should at least have tagged what the lists were of!

Question prompt

The passage provides the Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Question Type

Science

Answer choices

  1. A
    Ponderosas that thrived in Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. (Line 7) The best we can figure, this answer is trying to get you to think that the discussion of the forests having "evolved" is trying to get you to think that there were genetic changes. However, first, the evolution happened to build to the ancient ponderosas, and there's no sign that there's been evolution since then. And, second, the evolution could be about the forest as a whole rather than the genetics of any individual species in the forest. The passage doesn't mention genes, so we shouldn't read them into it.
  2. B
    The population density of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Must Be True

    Strategy Overview:
    Find the section(s) about ponderosa forests and review what is stated about them, then find an answer reflecting it

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    Looking at our notes, we can see that ancient ponderosa forests served as an example in Paragraph 1, where the approaches were being outlined, so let's head there to see what it says.

    The example starts in Line 9, building from a statement that forest ecosystems evolved to rely on occasional fires for "renewal and for limiting damage" in future fires. The ponderosa forests were stable because such fires led to "open forests" that were cleared of "brush and young trees" every 5-25 years.

    There's also another discussion of ponderosa forests starting in Line 29—we should have noted it as a continuation of the earlier example. There, it's stated that today these forests haven't had fires for 50 or more years. While this question asks about ancient ponderosa forests and this is about modern ones, we can infer from this that ancient ponderosa forests had fewer brushes/young trees, were more open, and had less fuel to burn.

    Let's find an answer reflecting any of these details.

    Answer Explanation:
    (Lines 11-14; Lines 18-19; Lines 28-30) The ancient ponderosa forests had fires every 5-25 years which left open forests by burning young trees. The modern forests haven't had a fire in 50+ years. That means those young trees weren't consumed in the fire, and so the forests must be less open and thus denser today, making this the correct answer.

    Key Takeaway:
    Always. Note. Examples. They're almost always going to show up in the questions, and so you should be able to find them quickly in the passage.
  3. C
    Weather patterns in these Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. (Line 38) Separate from the discussion of ponderosa forests, the passage notes that weather is unpredictable, but it doesn't state that it's changed over time.
  4. D
    The diversity of plant Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. (Line 14) The passage notes that the fires in the ancient forests burned brush and young trees. However, that doesn't mean that it wiped out entire species of plants. It could be that the same list of plants was present then as it is today, there are just more of each species.
  5. E
    In addition to clearing Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 20-24) Killing off wildlife that would otherwise escape the fire is noted as being something true of fires today when fires are kept out of forests

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