LSAT 127 – Section 3 – Question 13

LSAT 127 - Section 3 - Question 13

December 2003

You need a full course to see this video. Enroll now and get started in less than a minute.

Request new explanation

Target time: 1:25

This is question data from the 7Sage LSAT Scorer. You can score your LSATs, track your results, and analyze your performance with pretty charts and vital statistics - all with a Free Account ← sign up in less than 10 seconds

Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT127 S3 Q13
+LR
Strengthen +Streng
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Link Assumption +LinkA
A
77%
165
B
1%
161
C
3%
160
D
14%
162
E
5%
158
126
144
162
 +Medium 146.462 +SubsectionMedium

Tent caterpillars’ routes between their nests and potential food sources are marked with chemical traces called pheromones that the caterpillars leave behind. Moreover, routes from food sources back to the nest are marked more heavily than are merely exploratory routes that have failed to turn up a food source. Thus, tent caterpillars are apparently among the insect species that engage in communal foraging, which consists in the conveying of information concerning the location of food to other members of the colony, nest, or hive.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that tent caterpillars engage in communal foraging. This is because tent caterpillars mark their routes to food with pheromones, and moreover mark routes to food more heavily than roots that don’t lead to food.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that tent caterpillars are attempting to convey information to one another by marking their trails, and that other caterpillars can pick up on such markings. If tent caterpillars don’t sense pheromones, then these trails would be useless.

A
A hungry tent caterpillar is more likely to follow heavily marked routes than lightly marked routes.
Hungry tent caterpillars know which routes to follow to food. This means tent caterpillars can indeed pick up on pheromones, and moreover know what heavily marked trails signify.
B
Tent caterpillars can detect the presence but not the concentration of pheromones.
If tent caterpillars can’t detect the concentration of pheromones, then the author’s claim about heavily marked paths is useless. This weakens the argument.
C
Sometimes individual tent caterpillars will not return to the nest until a food source is located.
This is irrelevant. The paths these tent caterpillars make would nevertheless lead to food.
D
The pheromones left by tent caterpillars are different from the pheromones left by other animals.
We don’t even know if tent caterpillars can sense pheromones.
E
The pheromones that tent caterpillars leave behind are detectable by certain other species of caterpillars.
We need to know if tent caterpillars can detect pheromones themselves. We don’t care what other caterpillars can do.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 127 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply