PT48.S1.Q17 - animal ecosystem recede threatened

JS

Some classes of animal are so successful that they spread into virtually every ecosystem...

Answer: the argument is flaw because "what is true of a whole is also true of its constituent elements"

However, It seems to me that the argument is quite valid. All insects are so successful and ants are the most successful among insects, we can conclude that ants are also successful, which means is not a threatened species. I can't find "whole" "part" flaw here. Anyone help me ?
http://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-48-section-1-question-17/

paulfan2011

Hi JS, it's me again. You are really sticking to your 1 preptest every two day schedule.

Anyway, another tough question. The flaw here is not about insects vs ants, but rather ants vs species of ants. The stimulus says ants are the most successful of the insects who spread into virtually every ecosystem, but concludes every SPECIES of ant is not a threatened species. The thing you have to realize is that there are many types of ants, which I bet many test takers didn't realize under pressure.

Those LSAC people really know psychology.

JS

Hey, @paulfan2011, thank you for your comments.
I am still confused about "ants vs species of ants". Do all the species of ants belongs to "ants" ? "Ants" itself includes "all the species of ants" ? if not, then the argument is valid. If yes, why species of ants is different from "ants" itself?

paulfan2011

Yes, all species of ants belong to ants, the way ants is used here should be interpreted as ants in general. If you ask me why, I don't know what to tell you other than this is just what the way the word ant should be understood in this context. Consider this, if I say many people are smart, while many others are not so smart. University students are among the first group. I mean university students in general are smart, not every university student is smart.

CJ Shin

As you approach the more difficult questions in LR sections, watch out for "fillers" that the LSAT writers employ to distract your attention away from the core.
This question is a good example.
Paul got it down. The core of the argument is not about ants vs other insects, it is actually about ants vs species of ants.
The flaw is actually a quite common one (whole to part flaw), but the writers really did conceal it well.

JS

Thanks, @pualfan2011 and @CJ Shin, now I totally understand.
For example, the students at Penn generally are quite successful (e.g, they got job at Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs etc.) but not every Penn students are successful.(e.g, like me). hahahaha. I got the point.

paulfan2011

Lol, don't be too harsh on yourself.

JS

@paulfan2011, how you doing recently. I finish PT49 yesterday and plan to take one day break.

paulfan2011

Pretty good. i got 178 on PT 46 after BR. I am regaining some of my confidence back from the June test. I am going to do PT 50 tomorrow. Someone else in the forum seems to have some trouble with this particular test. I too have noticed changes in LR and RC from preptest 50 +. This is one of the variables I really worry about. I was scoring -1 to-3 on LR before I took the June 2013 Test and somehow I missed 13 on the test. I might have not performed well due to the fact that I blew the LG on the first section and lost focus and confidence on the rest, but 13 is still a pretty big difference. I suspect that it has to do with the weird question stems on the tests, which you probably have heard. (I have the June test and the answers, but i haven't looked at the test. I plan to redo that test after I finish the 21 preptests that comes with the course so I can completely regain my confidence before taking the October test)

Anyway, when are you taking preptest 50, we should BR that test together.

JS

Sure, I plan to take PT50 tomorrow (July 30th) in the morning

paulfan2011

I'll do preptest 47 today and 50 tomorrow then. So how do you want to do this? Do you prefer Google Doc or Skype or something else?

JS

Google doc will be great.

paulfan2011

Ok, Let me know when you are done with the test, you can email me at [removed]