LSAT 110 – Section 3 – Question 24

LSAT 110 - Section 3 - Question 24

June 2001

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT110 S3 Q24
+LR
Strengthen +Streng
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
3%
161
B
2%
159
C
14%
164
D
6%
161
E
75%
168
140
153
167
 +Harder 145.976 +SubsectionMedium

Ringtail opossums are an Australian wildlife species that is potentially endangered. A number of ringtail opossums that had been orphaned and subsequently raised in captivity were monitored after being returned to the wild. Seventy-five percent of these opossums were killed by foxes, a species not native to Australia. Conservationists concluded that the native ringtail opossum population was endangered not by a scarcity of food, as had been previously thought, but by non-native predator species against which the opossum had not developed natural defenses.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The conservationists hypothesize that non-native predators are endangering ringtail opossums, instead of a food scarcity. Why? Because non-native foxes killed 75 percent of a particular group of opossums that had been rehabilitated and returned to the wild.

Notable Assumptions
The conservationists assume the group of opossums raised in captivity died in a way typical of the general ringtail opossum population. This means assuming the group was large enough and diverse enough to be representative of ringtail opossums in Australia. They also assume a food scarcity would not make ringtail opossums any more vulnerable to predators and that their endangerment cannot be explained by anything except non-native predation.

A
There are fewer non-native predator species that prey on the ringtail opossum than there are native species that prey on the ringtail opossum.
This doesn’t mean non-native predators pose a larger threat. If anything, it suggests the total number of opossums killed by native predators could be greater than the number killed by non-native predators, which would weaken the argument.
B
Foxes, which were introduced into Australia over 200 years ago, adapted to the Australian climate less successfully than did some other foreign species.
This is irrelevant. It doesn’t mean other non-native species pose an even larger threat to ringtail opossums than foxes—there’s no indication those other species even prey on foxes.
C
The ringtail opossums that were raised in captivity were fed a diet similar to that which ringtail opossums typically eat in the wild.
This suggests the opossums killed had diets that were typical of wild opossums, not that their cause of death was typical. It doesn’t disfavor the leading alternative hypothesis, a food scarcity, because it doesn’t imply the opossums killed were able to find food in the wild.
D
Few of the species that compete with the ringtail opossum for food sources are native to Australia.
This is irrelevant. The conservationists explicitly blame non-native predators for the ringtail opossum’s endangerment, not species that compete with them for food.
E
Ringtail opossums that grow to adulthood in the wild defend themselves against foxes no more successfully than do ringtail opossums raised in captivity.
This rules out an alternative explanation for the opossums’ deaths: that the opossums raised in captivity were killed by foxes in large numbers because they were unusually bad at protecting themselves.

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Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

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Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

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