LSAT 153 – Section 2 – Question 09

LSAT 153 - Section 2 - Question 09

June 2019

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT153 S2 Q09
+LR
Point at issue: disagree +Disagr
Value Judgment +ValJudg
A
85%
162
B
5%
156
C
2%
150
D
0%
149
E
8%
152
137
145
154
 +Medium 146.684 +SubsectionMedium

Ellen: A group of economists and ecologists recently estimated the economic value of Earth’s biosphere’s “essential services,” such as climate regulation, food, and water supplies, at $33 trillion annually. We should therefore make protection of the biosphere a high priority.

Santiago: I’m uncomfortable with the idea of calculating the biosphere’s dollar value in order to justify protecting it. Such an approach implies that the biosphere’s most important value lies in the “services” it provides us.

Speaker 1 Summary
Ellen says that we should prioritize protecting Earth’s biosphere. This is supported by a recent estimate by a group of experts that the biosphere provides $33 trillion worth of “services” to humans each year.

Speaker 2 Summary
Santiago concludes that we should not use an economic approach to justify protecting the biosphere. Why not? Because taking that approach implies that the biosphere is primarily important due to the “services” it provides. Santiago presumably thinks that the biosphere’s truest value lies elsewhere.

Objective
We want to find a disagreement between Ellen and Santiago. They disagree about whether economic valuation is a good justification for protecting Earth’s biosphere.

A
Estimating the dollar value of the biosphere’s essential services is an appropriate way of providing a rationale for making protection of the biosphere a high priority.
Ellen agrees and Santiago disagrees, so this is the disagreement. Ellen’s argument does exactly this, using an estimated dollar value to rationalize protecting the biosphere. Santiago, though, says that economic value is not how we should justify protecting the biosphere.
B
The biosphere’s most important value lies in something other than the services it provides to human beings.
Santiago agrees with this, but Ellen never disagrees. Ellen focuses on the value of the “services” provided by the biosphere, but doesn’t eliminate the possibility of a more important value.
C
Calculating the dollar value of the biosphere’s essential services is the most effective way to ensure that protecting the biosphere is treated as a matter of urgency.
Neither speaker talks about what would be the most effective way to ensure that the biosphere is urgently protected, so we can’t say that either Ellen or Santiago expresses an opinion.
D
The idea that the dollar value of the biosphere’s essential services can be accurately calculated is unrealistic.
Neither speaker makes this claim. Ellen accepts the idea of estimating this dollar value, and even Santiago doesn’t take issue with whether the calculation is realistic.
E
Calculating the dollar value of the biosphere’s essential services implies that the biosphere’s most important value lies in the services it provides to human beings.
Santiago agrees with this, but Ellen doesn’t disagree. Ellen doesn’t talk at all about the implications of doing this calculation, or about what the biosphere’s most important value is.

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LSAT PrepTest 153 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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