LSAT 109 – Section 1 – Question 06

LSAT 109 - Section 1 - Question 06

December 2000

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT109 S1 Q06
+LR
Strengthen +Streng
Math +Math
A
5%
161
B
1%
155
C
1%
160
D
92%
167
E
0%
165
121
134
147
 +Easiest 148.877 +SubsectionMedium

A recent national study of the trash discarded in several representative areas confirmed that plastics constitute a smaller proportion of all trash than paper products do, whether the trash is measured by weight or by volume. The damage that a given weight or volume of trash does to the environment is roughly the same whether the trash consists of plastics or paper products. Contrary to popular opinion, therefore, the current use of plastics actually does less harm to the environment nationwide than that of paper products.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes paper products currently hurt the country’s environment more than plastic products. Why? Because paper trash and plastic trash do roughly the same damage, but there’s more paper trash out there, by weight and by volume.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes there’s nothing else about plastic or paper that makes plastic products more harmful to the environment. This means assuming that plastic does no more harm than paper over a given product’s entire life cycle, including before it becomes garbage.

A
A given weight of paper product may increase in volume after manufacture and before being discarded as trash.
This doesn’t affect the argument. It doesn’t say paper does more or less harm—or exists in greater or lesser amounts—at earlier stages of its life cycle than plastic does.
B
According to popular opinion, volume is a more important consideration than weight in predicting the impact of a given quantity of trash on the environment.
This doesn’t affect the argument. The study found more paper than plastic by weight and by volume, so the conclusion is supported equally whether this is true or false.
C
The sum of damage caused to the environment by paper trash and by plastic trash is greater than that caused by any other sort of trash that was studied.
This doesn’t affect the argument. The author compares paper and plastic trash to each other, not to other types of trash.
D
The production of any paper product is more harmful to the environment than is the production of an equal weight or volume of any plastic.
This is another reason paper usage does more damage to the environment than plastic usage. It rules out the possibility that plastic products do more harm to the environment during manufacturing than paper products do.
E
The proportion of plastic trash to paper trash varies from one part of the country to another.
This is accounted for in the study described, so it doesn’t affect the argument. The study examined “representative areas” across the country—differences between those areas do not imply the study was flawed.

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LSAT PrepTest 109 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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