LSAT 121 – Section 4 – Question 02

LSAT 121 - Section 4 - Question 02

December 2005

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT121 S4 Q02
+LR
Strengthen +Streng
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
2%
155
B
0%
158
C
4%
157
D
0%
161
E
93%
164
123
134
145
 +Easiest 146.544 +SubsectionMedium

Sleep research has demonstrated that sleep is characterized by periods of different levels of brain activity. People experience dreams during only one of these periods, known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Test subjects who are chronically deprived of REM sleep become irritable during waking life. This shows that REM sleep relieves the stresses of waking life.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that REM sleep relieves stress. This is based on the phenomenon that people who don’t get REM sleep become grumpy.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes causation from correlation. In other words, the author assumes that a lack of REM sleep makes REM sleep-deprived individuals cranky, and there isn’t some other factor that causes the crankiness.

A
Test subjects who are chronically deprived of non-REM sleep also become irritable during waking life.
This weakens the argument. It attacks the author’s assumption that a lack of REM sleep makes REM sleep-deprived individuals cranky, as people deprived of non-REM sleep also become cranky. This weakens the causal relationship between a lack of REM sleep and crankiness.
B
Chronically having bad dreams can cause stress, but so can chronically having pleasant but exciting dreams.
This does not affect the argument. The nature of the dreams one has in REM sleep does not affect the phenomenon the author seeks to explain, which is that a lack of REM sleep makes people more irritable.
C
During times of increased stress, one’s REM sleep is disturbed in a way that prevents one from dreaming.
This does not affect the argument. While we know that dreams only occur during REM sleep, we don't know how, or whether, a lack of dreams impacts the stress relief process the author claims occurs during REM sleep.
D
Only some people awakened during REM sleep can report the dreams they were having just before being awakened.
This does not affect the argument. We don't know how, or whether, remembering the dreams that occur during REM sleep affects the stress relief process the author claims occurs during REM sleep.
E
Other factors being equal, people who normally have shorter periods of REM sleep tend to experience more stress.
This strengthens the argument. It offers more evidence to support the causal relationship the author assumes exists. In other words, it supports the author’s assumption that a lack of REM sleep (as opposed to some other factor) makes REM sleep-deprived individuals cranky.

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LSAT PrepTest 121 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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