LSAT 121 – Section 4 – Question 19

LSAT 121 - Section 4 - Question 19

December 2005

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT121 S4 Q19
+LR
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Sampling +Smpl
A
10%
157
B
5%
157
C
1%
156
D
80%
165
E
3%
158
142
150
159
 +Medium 146.544 +SubsectionMedium

Fifty chronic insomniacs participated in a one-month study conducted at an institute for sleep disorders. Half were given a dose of a new drug and the other half were given a placebo every night before going to bed at the institute. Approximately 80 percent of the participants in each group reported significant relief from insomnia during the first two weeks of the study. But in each group, approximately 90 percent of those who had reported relief claimed that their insomnia had returned during the third week of the study.

"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why did approximately 80 percent of people in each of the study’s groups report relief from insomnia during the first two weeks of the study and 90 percent of those from each group who reported relief from insomnia claim their insomnia returned during the third week?

Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains a key similarity between the 80 percent of people from both the placebo and treatment groups that reported relief from insomnia, the 90 percent of those from each group that reported relief but claimed their insomnia returned, or both.

A
Because it is easy to build up a tolerance to the new drug, most people will no longer experience its effects after taking it every night for two weeks.
This provides a difference between the people in the placebo and treatment groups, but we need a similarity. (A) tells us most people in the treatment group wouldn’t experience the drug’s potential effects after two weeks. This doesn’t explain why the groups had similar results.
B
The psychological comfort afforded by the belief that one has taken a sleep-promoting drug is enough to prevent most episodes of insomnia.
We don’t know if people in either group believed that they’d taken a sleep-promoting drug. Therefore, (B) is irrelevant.
C
The new drug is very similar in chemical composition to another drug, large doses of which have turned out to be less effective than expected.
We don’t know the significance of the chemical composition of the new drug or the size of the dosage taken by people in the treatment group. (C) doesn’t help explain the phenomenon in the stimulus.
D
Most insomniacs sleep better in a new environment, and the new drug has no effect on an insomniac’s ability to sleep.
This points out two key similarities between those in the placebo and treatment groups. Most people in both groups were likely to sleep better in their new environment and the new drug doesn’t affect sleep, helping to explain the similarity in results between the two groups.
E
Some insomniacs cannot reliably determine how much sleep they have had or how well they have slept.
We don’t know if this applies to insomniacs in the study. (E) tells us nothing about why the placebo and treatment groups had similar results.

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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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