LSAT 120 – Section 4 – Question 24

LSAT 120 - Section 4 - Question 24

October 2005

You need a full course to see this video. Enroll now and get started in less than a minute.

Request new explanation

Target time: 1:01

This is question data from the 7Sage LSAT Scorer. You can score your LSATs, track your results, and analyze your performance with pretty charts and vital statistics - all with a Free Account ← sign up in less than 10 seconds

Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT120 S4 Q24
+LR
+Exp
Strengthen +Streng
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Eliminating Options +ElimOpt
A
1%
155
B
4%
157
C
85%
163
D
9%
155
E
1%
156
137
146
155
 +Medium 146.628 +SubsectionMedium

New evidence suggests that the collapse of Egypt’s old kingdom some 4,000 years ago was caused by environmental catastrophe rather than internal social upheaval. Ocean sediments reveal a period of global cooling at the time, a condition generally associated with extended droughts. There were, no doubt, serious social problems in Egypt at the time, but they resulted from a severe dry spell.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the collapse of Egypt’s old kingdom was caused by a climate catastrophe rather than social upheaval. This is because ocean sediments imply a drought at the time Egypt’s old kingdom collapsed, and such a catastrophe was responsible for the subsequent social problems.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the collapse of Egypt’s old kingdom should be attributed to the first cause rather than the most direct cause. While social upheaval did indeed lead to the collapse of Egypt’s old kingdom, drought caused social upheaval. The author believes this means drought is really the cause of the old kingdom’s collapse.

A
Historically, most civilizations have succumbed to internal strife rather than external factors.
According to the author, Egypt’s old kingdom succumbed to external factors. We don’t care what happened with most civilizations.
B
The social problems in Egypt’s old kingdom at the time of its collapse were serious enough to have caused the collapse.
The author claims the drought caused the social problems. We need to strengthen the claim that the drought, and not the social problems themselves, is really to blame for Egypt’s old kingdom collapsing.
C
At the time of the collapse of the old kingdom, several isolated but well-established civilizations near Egypt underwent sudden declines.
When Egypt’s old kingdom declined, several other civilizations declined independently. This suggests there was some common factor to all these declines: the drought.
D
Egyptian records recovered from the time of the collapse explicitly refer to the deteriorating conditions of the society.
We already know there were social problems.
E
Shortly after the collapse of the old kingdom, Egypt was thrust into a civil war that lasted most of the next two centuries.
We don’t care what happened after the collapse of the old kingdom. We need to strengthen the claim that drought caused the collapse.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 120 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply