LSAT 139 – Section 1 – Question 05

LSAT 139 - Section 1 - Question 05

June 2013

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT139 S1 Q05
+LR
Evaluate +Eval
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
20%
165
B
3%
160
C
70%
165
D
1%
157
E
6%
160
120
134
173
 +Easiest 142.273 +SubsectionEasier

Video of JY doing this

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Journalist: A recent study showed that people who drink three cups of decaffeinated coffee per day are twice as likely to develop arthritis—inflammation of joints resulting from damage to connective tissue—as those who drink three cups of regular coffee per day. Clearly, decaffeinated coffee must contain something that damages connective tissue and that is not present in regular coffee.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The journalist hypothesizes that something present in decaffeinated coffee, but not regular coffee, damages connective tissue. This is based on a study showing people who drink three cups of decaffeinated coffee per day are twice as likely to develop arthritis as those who drink three cups of regular coffee per day.

Notable Assumptions
Based on a mere correlation, the journalist assumes that decaffeinated coffee causes higher rates of arthritis. This means the journalist doesn’t believe that some third factor is responsible for people drinking decaffeinated coffee and for those same people having higher rates of arthritis. The author also assumes that arthritis is caused by connective tissue degeneration.

A
whether people who exercise regularly are more likely to drink decaffeinated beverages than those who do not
We have no idea what the relationship between arthritis and exercise is. Thus, knowing the answer to this provides us with no useful information.
B
whether people who drink decaffeinated coffee tend to drink coffee less often than those who drink regular coffee
The study compared people who drank three cups of coffee, be that decaffeinated coffee or regular coffee. We don’t care if decaf drinkers generally drink more coffee.
C
whether the degeneration of connective tissue is slowed by consumption of caffeine and other stimulants
If caffeine does slow connective tissue degeneration, then it might not be that decaffeinated coffee is causing arthritis—caffeinated coffee is actually staving arthritis off. If this were true, the author’s argument would be weakened. If not, it remains intact.
D
whether most coffee drinkers drink more than three cups of coffee per day
We don’t care how many cups of coffee people actually drink. The journalist is comparing between groups of people who drank three cups per day in the study, and hypothesizing based on the difference between the two groups.
E
whether people who have arthritis are less likely than the general population to drink coffee of any kind
Irrelevant. The journalist draws a causal connection between decaffeinated coffee and connective tissue degeneration. People who don’t drink coffee have no effect on an argument comparing between two types of coffee.

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LSAT PrepTest 139 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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