LSAT 129 – Section 1 – Question 24

LSAT 129 - Section 1 - Question 24

June 2009

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

Request new explanation

Target time: 1:25

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
PT129 S1 Q24
+LR
+Exp
Except +Exc
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
68%
165
B
8%
159
C
10%
159
D
8%
157
E
6%
158
149
157
165
 +Harder 146.023 +SubsectionMedium

Columnist: The amount of acidic pollutants released into the air has decreased throughout the world over the last several decades. We can expect, then, an overall decrease in the negative environmental effects of acid rain, which is caused by these acidic pollutants.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that we should expect an overall decrease in the negative environmental effects of acid rain. This is because the amount of acidic pollutants released into the air has decreased over the last several decades, and negative environmental effects of acid rain are caused by these pollutants.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that there haven’t been other changes over the last several decades that increase the negative environmental effects of acid rain.

A
Some ecosystems have developed sophisticated mechanisms that reduce the negative effects of increased levels of acids in the environment.
If anything, this might strengthen the argument by giving us reason to think at least some ecosystems have additional new protections that can reduce harm from acid rain.
B
The amount of acid-neutralizing buffers released into the air has decreased in recent years.
This indicates that certain things that protect against acid (acid-neutralizing buffers) have decreased, which would tend to increase harm from acid rain. This increase might offset the effect of decreased acidic pollutants.
C
The current decrease in acidic pollutants is expected to end soon, as more countries turn to coal for the generation of electricity.
This suggests that the decrease in acidic pollutants will end, which implies that we should not expect harm from acid rain to decrease in the near future. Once pollutant levels stop decreasing, we would expect harm from acid rain not to decrease.
D
The effects of acid rain are cumulative and largely independent of current acid rain levels.
This suggests that decreased amounts of pollutants in acid rain don’t significantly impact the harm caused by acid rain. Thus, we have less reason to think that decreased acidic pollutants would lead to less harm.
E
The soils of many ecosystems exposed to acid rain have been exhausted of minerals that help protect them from acid rain’s harmful effects.
This suggests that protections against acid rain have decreased, which would tend to increase harm from acid rain. This increased harm might offset the benefit of decreased acidic pollutants.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 129 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply