LSAT 146 – Section 3 – Question 16

LSAT 146 - Section 3 - Question 16

June 2016

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

Target time: 1:27

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
PT146 S3 Q16	+LR	Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE	A 4% 160 B 67% 165 C 3% 156 D 18% 161 E 9% 162	140 154 169	+Harder	146.758 +SubsectionMedium

Babblers, a bird species, live in large cooperative groups. Each member attempts to defend the group by sounding a loud barklike call when it spots a predator, inciting the others to bark too. Babblers, however, are extremely well camouflaged and could usually feed safely, unnoticed by predators. These predators, indeed, generally become aware of the presence of babblers only because of their shrill barks, which continue long after most members of the group have been able to take cover and which signal the group’s approximate location to the predators.

"Surprising" Phenomenon

When a babbler spots a predator, that babbler and its group make loud, barklike calls despite the fact that the loud noise itself is typically the reason why the predator discovers that the birds are there.

Objective

The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains why babblers make their barklike call in response to predator sightings even though the call is often what draws their predator’s attention. That explanation will either describe some survival benefit of the barklike call which could outweigh the risks, or a way in which alerting predators of their presence is beneficial to the babblers’ chances of survival.

Babblers fly much faster than the predators that prey upon them.

While this answer might explain a way by which babblers escape their predators, it does nothing to explain why the birds would make a noise that alerts the predators to their presence in the first place.

Babblers’ predators are generally intimidated by large numbers of babblers.

This explains why it might be a good idea for babblers to make noise when predators are near. Predators are intimidated by large numbers of babblers, and only by hearing their collective call do predators become aware that there are many babblers nearby.

There is more than one type of predator that preys upon babblers.

The fact that there are multiple types of predators preying on babblers does nothing to explain why the babblers would want to call any predator’s attention to their presence.

Babblers’ predators have very good eyesight but relatively weak hearing.

This may seem to mitigate the potential damage of the babblers’ loud call—maybe the predators can’t hear them well anyway?—but it does nothing to explain why the babblers would want to make any noise at all in the presence of predators.

Animals that live in close proximity to babblers are also preyed upon by the predators that prey upon babblers.

Even if the babblers’ call tells predators that other prey are nearby, it still also proves that the babblers themselves are there. Predators could easily decide to eat the babblers instead of the other animals, and this answer doesn’t explain why babblers would take that risk.

LSAT 146 – Section 3 – Question 16

LSAT 146 - Section 3 - Question 16

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

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 146 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

Leave a Reply Cancel