PT 19 S2 Q17 People cannot devote themselves

mitrakhanom1

Why is answer choice C correct? I thought this is a Most Strongly Supported question. I picked answer choice D thinking it is most supported since back then those who learned about natural processes through active learning where the only ones who learned at that time. So when compared to nonagricultural societies, they had learned how to grow plants. But I guess that is assuming too much. But that still doesn't explain to me why answer choice C is correct.

LSATdogfml

17. People cannot devote themselves to the study of natural processes unless they have leisure, and people have leisure when resources are plentiful, not when resources are scarce. Although some anthropologists claim that agriculture, the cultivation of crops, actually began under conditions of drought and hunger, the early societies that domesticated plants must first have discovered how the plants they cultivated reproduced themselves and grew to maturity. These complex discoveries were the result of the active study of natural processes.

P1: People devote SNP (study natural processes) --> leisure
P2: Leisure -> Plentiful
P3: third sentence
C1: Early societies conducted SNP
(Therefore: Early societies had resources)

A) reversal of P1/P2 formal logic. Wrong
out of scope (although sort of an assumption too)
C) Fits the hidden conclusion (after "therefore"), but uses "agricultures first began". Let's wait and see.
D) Out of scope. The passage mentions neither non-agricultural nor natural sciences (it says natural processes)
E) Could, yes. But irrelevant to the stem.

So yeah this is a hard question. The correct answer C is worded in a way that resembles wrong answer choices (interchange terms early societies and societies in which agriculture first began). But process of elimination says it's correct.

Don't worry brah these wording styles rarely appear in later PTs. Honestly just jump to PT 35 and start from there instead.

LSATdogfml

Also answer D is reverse logic.

Agriculture requires knowledge of natural processes. True.

If Agriculture --> SNP
But having SNP alone does not necessitate agriculture. So it's logically incorrect to say that non-agriculture societies didn't study natural processes.

tosin1213

how is answer A against formal logic? is it because of the "some"? thnx