PT91.S4.Q18 (P3) - Political arguments about biodiversity

lsat hacks-1

Could someone please explain why C is wrong and D is correct ? I had a really hard time with this passage, and also passages 2 and 4 from this section. I thought this was a pretty hard RC section generally

Admin Note: Edited title. Please use the format: "PT#.S#.Q# (P#) - brief description of stimulus"

windinparadise97

In the first paragraph the author notes that the lumpers employ the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group that is reproductively isolated from other groups. So different species cannot interbreed. The lumpers did not mention anything about appearance. D is the only one that talks about interbreeding / reproductive isolation.

Even though it's not suppose to happen in LSAT, I think this passage will be significantly harder for non-biology majors... Hope this is helpful!

lsat hacks-1

thanks! I was confused b/c C says visually indistinguishable which seems to match "very similar" in paragraph 1 since it doesn't specify similar in what way. C also says MUTUALLY isolated which I thought was the same as reproductive isolation? though i guess you can't assume about if interbreeding happens or not since it doesn't specify, just that it's isolated

lsat hacks-1

Also, for D it doesn't say anything about these two populations being very similar - which paragraph1 says. but I guess D is enough b/c it says interbreed - and as long as you interbreed you can't be the same species ?

bedib

I think the method here is to stick the core of the argument about biological species concept. Flick back to the only line where the author explicitly discusses what its proponents say (para 1): if you interbreed, same species, if you don't, then you aren't. The only one that really touches upon this core issue is (D). The rest seem far-off inferences which could be true but can't be attributed as direct beliefs of the proponents of this concept.

You are right that they group very similar species together, but if you shift focus to WHY they do that, it makes (D) more provable. They group them together not because they are similar but because they interbreed, that's it. That's what their opinion is based on, not the visual similarity. The latter is just somewhat of a consequence.

Hope that helps!

lsat hacks-1

That 's a good point, since interbreed is the only explicit comment. thank you!

leoxnardx

Hey did you happen to get question 22 right? I have no idea why that should be E nor I understand what that means.