LSAT 138 – Section 3 – Question 09
LSAT 138 - Section 3 - Question 09
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| Question QuickView |
Type | Tags | Answer Choices |
Curve | Question Difficulty |
Psg/Game/S Difficulty |
Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PT138 S3 Q09 |
+LR
| Weaken +Weak Causal Reasoning +CausR Lack of Support v. False Conclusion +LSvFC | A
88%
165
B
3%
160
C
5%
159
D
3%
157
E
1%
157
|
126 139 152 |
+Easier | 147.528 +SubsectionMedium |
All laundry detergents contain surfactants, which can harm aquatic life. However, the environmental effects of most ingredients in laundry detergents, including most of those in so-called “ecologically friendly” detergents, are unknown. Therefore, there is no reason to suppose that laundry detergents advertised as ecologically friendly are less damaging to the environment than other laundry detergents are.
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that there is no reason to believe that laundry detergents advertised as “eco-friendly” are less damaging to the environment than other laundry detergents are. He supports this by saying that the environmental effects of most laundry detergent ingredients, including most ingredients in “eco-friendly” detergents, are unknown.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that because the environmental effects of most detergent ingredients are unknown, there is no reason to believe that "ecologically friendly" detergents are less damaging. This ignores the possibility there could be some other reason to believe that eco-friendly detergents are less damaging, such as the effects of those ingredients that are known, or the effects of some other factor like packaging or production.
A
Laundry detergents that are advertised as ecologically friendly contain much lower amounts of surfactants, on average, than do other laundry detergents.
If “eco-friendly” detergents contain much lower amounts of environmentally damaging surfactants than other detergents, this gives a reason to believe that they might be less damaging to the environment, even though the effects of most of their ingredients are unknown.
B
There is no reason to suppose that most of the ingredients in laundry detergents not advertised as ecologically friendly harm the environment significantly.
The columnist’s argument is about the environmental effects of those detergents that are advertised as eco-friendly. Whether or not there is reason to believe that regular laundry detergents harm the environment doesn’t weaken her conclusion about “eco-friendly” detergents.
C
Different kinds of laundry detergents contain different kinds of surfactants, which differ in the degree to which they could potentially harm aquatic life.
This is too vague to weaken the columnist’s conclusion because we don’t know which kinds of detergents contain which kinds of surfactants. Do “eco-friendly” detergents contain more harmful or less harmful surfactants? (C) doesn’t give us this information.
D
There is reason to suppose that ingredients in laundry detergents other than surfactants harm the environment more than surfactants do.
Like (C), this is too vague to impact the columnist’s argument. We don’t know which detergents contain these other, more harmful ingredients, so we can’t conclude anything about the effects of “eco-friendly” detergents.
E
Laundry detergents advertised as environmentally friendly are typically less effective than other detergents, so that larger amounts must be used.
If larger amounts of “eco-friendly” detergents must be used and these detergents contain harmful surfactants, (E) strengthens the columnist’s conclusion that there is no reason to believe that “eco-friendly” detergents are less damaging to the environment than other detergents.
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LSAT PrepTest 138 Explanations
Section 1 - Reading Comprehension
- Passage 1 – Passage
- Passage 1 – Questions
- Passage 2 – Passage
- Passage 2 – Questions
- Passage 3 – Passage
- Passage 3 – Questions
- Passage 4 – Passage
- Passage 4 – Questions
Section 2 - Logical Reasoning
- Question 01
- Question 02
- Question 03
- Question 04
- Question 05
- Question 06
- Question 07
- Question 08
- Question 09
- Question 10
- Question 11
- Question 12
- Question 13
- Question 14
- Question 15
- Question 16
- Question 17
- Question 18
- Question 19
- Question 20
- Question 21
- Question 22
- Question 23
- Question 24
- Question 25
- Question 26
Section 3 - Logical Reasoning
- Question 01
- Question 02
- Question 03
- Question 04
- Question 05
- Question 06
- Question 07
- Question 08
- Question 09
- Question 10
- Question 11
- Question 12
- Question 13
- Question 14
- Question 15
- Question 16
- Question 17
- Question 18
- Question 19
- Question 20
- Question 21
- Question 22
- Question 23
- Question 24
- Question 25
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