LSAT 118 – Section 4 – Question 05

LSAT 118 - Section 4 - Question 05

December 2004

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT118 S4 Q05
+LR
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
97%
165
B
1%
154
C
0%
149
D
0%
154
E
1%
158
122
131
140
 +Easiest 147.106 +SubsectionMedium

Rats fed high doses of the artificial sweetener saccharin develop silicate crystals that are toxic to cells lining the bladder. When the cells regenerate, some are cancerous and form tumors. Unlike rats, mice fed high doses of saccharin do not get bladder cancer.

"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why don’t mice develop bladder cancer when fed high doses of saccharin, even though rats who are fed high doses of saccharin do develop such cancer?

Objective
The correct answer should tell me something different about mice compared to rats that would inhibit the development of bladder cancer. It probably has something to do with silicate crystals, which the stimulus says are toxic to cells in rat bladders.

A
Urine proteins that react with saccharin to form silicate crystals are found in rats but not in mice.
Saccharin in rats leads to toxic silicate crystals in their bladders. This answer suggests saccharin in mice won’t develop silicate crystals in their bladders, which could explain why mice don’t get bladder cancer from saccharin.
B
Cells in the bladder regenerate more quickly in mice than they do in rats.
Is faster regeneration of cells something that would prevent bladder cancer? We don’t know.
C
High doses of saccharin are much more likely to produce silicate crystals than lower doses are.
This doesn’t help differentiate mice and rats. So, it can’t help explain the different reactions in mice and rats to saccharin.
D
The silicate crystals are toxic only to the cells lining the bladder and not to other bladder cells.
This doesn’t help differentiate mice and rats. So, it can’t help explain the different reactions in mice and rats to saccharin.
E
High doses of other artificial sweeteners have been shown to produce silicate crystals in mice but not in rats.
This makes the lack of bladder cancer in mice who are given saccharin more difficult to explain. Saccharin is an artificial sweetener, so we might think mice would react similarly to saccharin as to the other sweeteners mentioned in this answer.

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LSAT PrepTest 118 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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