LSAT 121 – Section 4 – Question 24

LSAT 121 - Section 4 - Question 24

December 2005

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT121 S4 Q24
+LR
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
11%
159
B
4%
157
C
78%
165
D
4%
155
E
3%
157
144
153
161
 +Harder 146.544 +SubsectionMedium

Many Seychelles warblers of breeding age forgo breeding, remaining instead with their parents and helping to raise their own siblings. This behavior, called cooperative breeding, results from the scarcity of nesting territory for the birds on the tiny island that, until recently, was home to the world’s population of Seychelles warblers. Yet when healthy warblers were transplanted to a much larger neighboring island as part of an experiment, most of those warblers maintained a pattern of cooperative breeding.

"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why did most of the healthy warblers transplanted to the neighboring island maintain a pattern of cooperative breeding when the neighboring island was much larger than Seychelles?

Objective
The correct answer must address something about the nature of the transplanted warblers or environmental factors affecting the warblers that help explain why most of the warblers maintained a pattern of cooperative breeding.

A
Many of the Seychelles warblers that were transplanted to the neighboring island had not yet reached breeding age.
Regardless of how many of the warblers had reached breeding age, we know the majority of the healthy warblers transplanted to the island maintained a pattern of cooperative breeding. (A) doesn’t help explain this phenomenon.
B
The climate of the island to which Seychelles warblers were transplanted was the same as that of the warblers’ native island.
We don’t know if climate affects warblers’ breeding habits. (B) gives us information that doesn’t aid our understanding of the phenomenon in the stimulus.
C
Most of the terrain on the neighboring island was not of the type in which Seychelles warblers generally build their nests.
This identifies an environmental factor on the neighboring island that could affect warbler breeding habits. If most of the terrain on the new island was not of the type warblers typically use for their nests, it may have caused many to maintain a pattern of cooperative breeding.
D
Cooperative breeding in species other than the Seychelles warbler often results when the environment cannot sustain a rise in the population.
We don’t know if the cooperative breeding habits of other species are indicative of the breeding habits of Seychelles warblers. (D) is irrelevant.
E
The Seychelles warblers had fewer competitors for nesting territory on the island to which they were transplanted than on their native island.
This may compound the phenomenon, as less competition for nesting could provide warblers with more space to raise offspring. The transplanted warblers having fewer nesting competitors isn’t an explanation for why many of those warblers maintained a cooperative breeding pattern.

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LSAT PrepTest 121 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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