LSAT 102 – Section 3 – Question 17

LSAT 102 - Section 3 - Question 17

June 1998

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT102 S3 Q17
+LR
+Exp
Most strongly supported +MSS
Conditional Reasoning +CondR
A
9%
158
B
4%
157
C
82%
166
D
2%
157
E
2%
156
143
151
159
 +Medium 147.613 +SubsectionMedium

People cannot devote themselves to the study of natural processes unless they have leisure, and people have leisure when resources are plentiful, not when resources are scarce. Although some anthropologists claim that agriculture, the cultivation of crops, actually began under conditions of drought and hunger, the early societies that domesticated plants must first have discovered how the plants they cultivated reproduced themselves and grew to maturity. These complex discoveries were the result of the active study of natural processes.

Summary
Despite what some anthropologists claim, agriculture must not have begun under conditions of drought and hunger. Why? Because agricultural discoveries are the result of the study of natural processes. People cannot study natural processes without leisure, and people have leisure only when resources are plentiful.

Strongly Supported Conclusions
Agriculture began under societies that had plentiful resources.

A
whenever a society has plentiful resources, some members of that society devote themselves to the study of natural processes
Plentiful resources are a necessary condition for people to devote themselves to studying natural processes. We don’t know whether a sufficient condition occurs just because a necessary condition occurs.
B
plants cannot be cultivated by someone lacking theoretical knowledge of the principles of plant generation and growth
We don’t know whether plants cannot be cultivated if a person lacks theoretical knowledge. The stimulus also does not address what would be considered theoretical knowledge.
C
agriculture first began in societies that at some time in their history had plentiful resources
Since some anthropologists are wrong, agriculture must have begun when a society had plentiful resources.
D
early agricultural societies knew more about the natural sciences than did early nonagricultural societies
We don’t know anything about nonagricultural societies. Additionally, the stimulus is limited to agriculture, whereas “natural sciences” is too broad.
E
early societies could have discovered by accident how the plants they cultivated reproduced and grew
We don’t know whether early societies discovered agriculture by accident.

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LSAT PrepTest 102 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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