LSAT 113 – Section 4 – Question 11

LSAT 113 - Section 4 - Question 11

June 2002

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT113 S4 Q11
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Eliminating Options +ElimOpt
A
2%
150
B
3%
152
C
26%
157
D
69%
161
E
1%
148
128
146
164
 +Medium 145.144 +SubsectionEasier

Lydia: Red squirrels are known to make holes in the bark of sugar maple trees and to consume the trees’ sap. Since sugar maple sap is essentially water with a small concentration of sugar, the squirrels almost certainly are after either water or sugar. Water is easily available from other sources in places where maple trees grow, so the squirrels would not go to the trouble of chewing holes in trees just to get water. Therefore, they are probably after the sugar.

Galina: It must be something other than sugar, because the concentration of sugar in the maple sap is so low that a squirrel would need to drink an enormous amount of sap to get any significant amount of sugar.

Summarize Argument
Galina disagrees with Lydia’s conclusion that red squirrels make holes in sugar maple trees in order to get the sugar in the trees’ sap. Galina concludes instead that the red squirrels are after something other than sugar. As support for this claim, Galina says that the concentration of sugar in the sap is so low that the squirrels would have to drink a very high amount of sap just to get a bit of sugar.

Notable Assumptions
Galina assumes that the red squirrels do not benefit from an insignificant amount of sugar. Galina also assumes that the red squirrels consume the sap by drinking it directly.

A
Squirrels are known to like foods that have a high concentration of sugar.
Squirrels’ preferences for other foods are irrelevant to the argument. Lydia and Galina are discussing squirrels’ motivations for consuming tree sap––we know that the squirrels consume the sap; Galina and Lydia just disagree about if they’re eating the sap to get the sugar.
B
Once a hole in a sugar maple trunk has provided one red squirrel with sap, other red squirrels will make additional holes in its trunk.
The topic of the argument is squirrels’ motivation for consuming sap. (B) just provides information about squirrels’ behavior patterns, but it does not say anything that could help determine whether squirrels are consuming the sap in order to get sugar, or for some other reason.
C
Trees other than sugar maples, whose sap contains a lower concentration of sugar than does sugar maple sap, are less frequently tapped by red squirrels.
Information about sugar concentrations in other trees is irrelevant. The arguments discuss squirrels’ motivation for consuming sugar maple tree sap; we don’t care about other trees. We don’t know why the squirrels are avoiding the other trees, and it’s the “why” that counts here.
D
Red squirrels leave the sugar maple sap that slowly oozes out of the holes in the tree’s trunk until much of the water in the sap has evaporated.
This weakens Galina’s argument because it shows that the squirrels are able to access the sugar in the sugar maple tree sap without drinking an enormous amount of sap. (D) makes it so that Galina’s premise does not provide support for her conclusion.
E
During the season when sap can be obtained from sugar maple trees, the weather often becomes cold enough to prevent sap from oozing out of the trees.
The arguments discuss squirrels’ reasons for consuming the sap. (E) tells us that accessing the sap may be difficult, but does not address squirrels’ motivations, so it does not weaken the argument.

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LSAT PrepTest 113 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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