LSAT 116 – Section 3 – Question 19

LSAT 116 - Section 3 - Question 19

June 2004

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT116 S3 Q19
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Net Effect +NetEff
A
12%
159
B
72%
165
C
4%
155
D
1%
155
E
11%
159
140
152
163
 +Medium 146.244 +SubsectionMedium

Today’s farmers plant only a handful of different strains of a given crop. Crops lack the diversity that they had only a few generations ago. Hence, a disease that strikes only a few strains of crops, and that would have had only minor impact on the food supply in the past, would devastate it today.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that a disease that would have had minor impacts on food supply in the past would be devastating today. This hypothesis is based on the observation that today’s crops lack diversity compared to crops in the past because farmers today only plant a few strains of a given crop.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that farmers today don’t have any way besides diversity to protect against diseases.

A
In the past, crop diseases would often devastate food supplies throughout entire regions.
The conclusion discusses specifically the diseases that would have had only minor impacts on the food supply in the past; the diseases referenced in (A) are outside of the scope of the argument.
B
Affected crops can quickly be replaced from seed banks that store many strains of those crops.
This weakens the argument because it gives a reason that a disease that would have had a minor impact on the food supply in the past would not be devastating today, because today’s farmers have another way to protect against the disease other than crop diversity.
C
Some of the less popular seed strains that were used in the past were more resistant to many diseases than are the strains popular today.
This compares the less popular strains of the past with the popular modern strains; this comparison isn’t relevant. (C) also tells us that some old strains were more robust than the popular modern strains, which is consistent with the claim that today’s crops are more vulnerable.
D
Humans today have more variety in their diets than in the past, but still rely heavily on cereal crops like rice and wheat.
The argument is about the crops that make up the food supply, not specifically human diets as a whole, so this is not relevant to the argument.
E
Today’s crops are much less vulnerable to damage from insects or encroachment by weeds than were crops of a few generations ago.
The argument is specifically about the damage caused by diseases; it could be the case that today’s crops are safer from insects and weeds, but that diseases are still able to devastate the food supply.

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LSAT PrepTest 116 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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