LSAT 123 – Section 2 – Question 14

LSAT 123 - Section 2 - Question 14

June 2007

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Question QuickView	Type	Tags	Answer Choices	Curve	Question Difficulty	Psg/Game/S Difficulty	Explanation
PT123 S2 Q14	+LR	Weaken +Weak Causal Reasoning +CausR Eliminating Options +ElimOpt	A 7% 148 B 7% 143 C 25% 148 D 4% 142 E 58% 153	136 147 159	+Medium	143.659 +SubsectionEasier

Relevant lessons: Phenomenon-hypothesis questions | Weakening Questions

A cup of raw milk, after being heated in a microwave oven to 50 degrees Celsius, contains half its initial concentration of a particular enzyme, lysozyme. If, however, the milk reaches that temperature through exposure to a conventional heat source of 50 degrees Celsius, it will contain nearly all of its initial concentration of the enzyme. Therefore, what destroys the enzyme is not heat but microwaves, which generate heat.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis

The author hypothesizes that microwaves rather than heat kill an enzyme in milk. He bases this on the difference in enzyme concentration between milk heated in a microwave and milk heated through a conventional source.

Notable Assumptions

The author assumes that the two methods of heating—microwaves and conventional heat sources—are in all ways comparable, hence why microwaves themselves are to blame for the enzyme reduction. This means that the author doesn’t believe that some difference in the heating methods (e.g. time it takes to reach 50 degrees Celsius) accounts for the difference in enzyme concentration.

Heating raw milk in a microwave oven to a temperature of 100 degrees Celsius destroys nearly all of the lysozyme initially present in that milk.

We don’t care what happens at 100 degrees Celsius. We need to weaken the author’s hypothesis about milk heated to 50 degrees Celsius.

Enzymes in raw milk that are destroyed through excessive heating can be replaced by adding enzymes that have been extracted from other sources.

The author hypothesizes about what causes milk to lose its enzymes. We’re not interested in how those enzymes can be replenished.

A liquid exposed to a conventional heat source of exactly 50 degrees Celsius will reach that temperature more slowly than it would if it were exposed to a conventional heat source hotter than 50 degrees Celsius.

The stimulus talks about a heat source of 50 degrees Celsius. We’re not interested in other ranges.

Milk that has been heated in a microwave oven does not taste noticeably different from milk that has been briefly heated by exposure to a conventional heat source.

Taste is irrelevant. We’re talking about enzymes.

Heating any liquid by microwave creates small zones within it that are much hotter than the overall temperature that the liquid will ultimately reach.

While milk is heated to 50 degrees Celsius in the microwave, pockets reach higher temperatures that thus kill the enzymes. This shows that microwaves themselves don’t kill enzymes—instead, high heat does.

LSAT 123 – Section 2 – Question 14

LSAT 123 - Section 2 - Question 14

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LSAT PrepTest 123 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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