LSAT 157 – Section 2 – Question 11

LSAT 157 - Section 2 - Question 11

June 2020

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT157 S2 Q11
+LR
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
A
1%
144
B
6%
144
C
72%
160
D
12%
152
E
8%
149
134
145
156
 +Medium 143.482 +SubsectionEasier

Wounds become infected because the break in the skin allows bacteria to enter. Infection slows healing. Often bacteria-killing ointment is applied to wounds after they have been cleaned, but a study at a Nigerian hospital found that cleaned wounds that were treated with honey—which contains significant quantities of bacteria—healed faster, on average, than both cleaned wounds treated with antibiotic ointment and wounds cleaned but not otherwise treated.

"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why did cleaned wounds treated with honey heal faster than both cleaned wounds treated with antibiotics and wounds that were only cleaned, even though honey has lots of bacteria, which slows healing?

Objective
The correct answer should tell us something that suggests the net effect of honey on healing time results in faster healing than cleaning wounds with antibiotics and cleaning wounds without additional substances. For example, there could be something in honey that kills enough bacteria to offset the additional bacteria in honey such that honey-treated wounds end up with less bacteria than antibiotics-treated wounds.

A
Wounds that have simply been cleaned with soap and water and not otherwise treated heal faster than wounds that have been cleaned and then treated with antibiotic ointment.
This doesn’t explain why the honey-treated wounds healed faster. And, we have no reason to think the cleaned wounds were cleaned with soap and water (as opposed to just water, or something else).
B
The bacteria found in honey are present in much lower concentrations than the concentrations of bacteria typically present in infected wounds, and applying antibiotic ointment to a wound rarely if ever kills all of the bacteria infecting the wound.
Even if the honey-bacteria has a lower concentration than wound-bacteria, the honey-treated wound would still have both the honey-bacteria and the regular wound-bacteria. So we’d still expect it to have more bacteria than an antibiotic-treated wound.
C
Honey has properties that inhibit the growth of bacteria in wounds, including the bacteria the honey contains, and antibiotic ointments damage sensitive wound tissue, which slows healing.
So, honey stops bacteria growth, including its own bacteria. And, on top of that, antibiotics do something that slows healing. This provides a potential explanation for why honey-treated wounds healed the fastest.
D
The high concentration of sugar in honey inhibits the growth of bacteria in wounds, including the bacteria contained in the honey itself.
(D) only explains why honey is better than cleaning alone. It doesn’t explain why honey-treated wounds healed faster than the antibiotic-treated wounds. After all, we’d expect antibiotics to kill bacteria, too.
E
The antibiotic ointment used in the study damages sensitive tissue in wounds, which slows healing, but honey does not have this effect if the wound has been cleaned.
So, honey has one advantage over antibiotic ointment. You know what else it has? Tons of bacteria. This doesn’t help explain why honey-treated wounds, in light of that bacteria, healed faster than antibiotic-treated wounds.

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LSAT PrepTest 157 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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