LSAT 124 – Section 3 – Question 06

LSAT 124 - Section 3 - Question 06

December 2007

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

Ask a tutor

Target time: 1:11

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
PT124 S3 Q06
+LR
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Sampling +Smpl
A
5%
161
B
3%
158
C
3%
157
D
87%
164
E
2%
155
125
138
152
 +Easier 145.896 +SubsectionMedium

Ornithologist: This bird species is widely thought to subsist primarily on vegetation, but my research shows that this belief is erroneous. While concealed in a well-camouflaged blind, I have observed hundreds of these birds every morning over a period of months, and I estimate that over half of what they ate consisted of insects and other animal food sources.

A
assumes, without providing justification, that the feeding behavior of the birds observed was not affected by the ornithologist’s act of observation
The author notes that she was concealed behind a “well-camouflaged blind” — so there is some justification for the assumption that the feeding wasn’t affected. In any case, the author just needs to assume that the birds didn’t change the vegetation/non-veg. makeup of their diet.
B
fails to specify the nature of the animal food sources, other than insects, that were consumed by the birds
The point of the observation is that the birds ate mainly non-vegetation in the morning. The particular kinds of food don’t matter as long as they’re not vegetation.
C
adopts a widespread belief about the birds’ feeding habits without considering the evidence that led to the belief
The author rejects the widespread belief that that the bird eats primarily vegetation.
D
neglects the possibility that the birds have different patterns of food consumption during different parts of the day and night
If the birds might have different patterns of food consumption at other times of day, that opens the possibility that the bird could eat primarly vegetation at other times of day. So the author’s observations of the birds’ diet might not be representative of the overall diet.
E
fails to consider the possibility that the birds’ diet has changed since the earlier belief about their diet was formed
If the birds’ diet has changed since the earlier belief was formed, that doesn’t undermine the author’s reasoning. The author is simply trying to prove that the bird doesn’t eat primarily vegetation.

The question stem reads: The reasoning in the ornithologist's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument… This is a Flaw question.

The ornithologist begins by stating how a particular bird species (we will call this bird "X") diet is believed to consist primarily of vegetation (plants). However, the ornithologist concludes that belief is wrong. In other words, The ornithologist argues that "X" birds' diets are mostly not plants. As evidence, he describes how he camouflaged himself and watched hundreds of "X" birds every morning for a month. During his morning observations, he estimates that over half of what "X" birds ate were insects and animal food resources (not plants). This line of reasoning is flawed because the ornithologist only observed birds during the morning. Let's say I hypothesized that the belief humans frequently drink coffee is wrong. To prove my theory, I hid in people's closets for many months and watched their bedtime routines. During my observations, I noticed very few people drank coffee. Hypothesis proven, right? No! The problem is that I only observed people at night when they were unlikely to drink coffee. The other problem is that I shouldn't hide in people's closets. An ideal experiment has a representative sample.

Similarly, the ornithologist has only observed what "X" birds eat in the morning. However, what "X" birds eat in the morning might be unrepresentative of their diet on the whole. Now that we have identified our flaw let's move to the answer choices.

Answer Choice (A) is wrong. The ornithologist says he camouflaged himself. You might argue that perhaps his camouflage was ineffective. However, our job LSAT flaw questions in the reasoning, not to question the truth of the premises. Even if he did camouflage himself well, his argument is still problematic (he was only watching "X" birds in the morning!).

Answer Choice (B) is wrong. The ornithologist does not need to describe exactly what kinds of food "X" birds ate. He needs to say that plants accounted for 50% or less of their diet. So if it was true that most of "X" birds' diets were insect and animal food sources, that would imply 50% or less of "X" birds' diet was plants.

Answer Choice (C) is wrong. The author does not adopt the widespread belief. The author rejects the widespread idea that "X" birds' diet is mostly plants.

Correct Answer Choice (D) is what we discussed. If it was confirmed that "X" birds have different feeding patterns throughout the day, the ornithologist made an error by taking an unrepresentative sample of the birds' diet.

Answer Choice (E) is incorrect. Mapping on the stimulus to (E), we would get: fails to consider the possibility that "X" birds diet has changed since the earlier belief that "X" birds mostly ate plants was formed. Even if it was true that the popular belief was formed when "X" birds used to mostly eat plants, what matters is what the birds eat now. If "X" birds mostly eat insects and animals, then the popular belief is wrong. Being right in the past doesn't make you any less wrong in the present.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 124 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply