LSAT 140 – Section 1 – Question 06

LSAT 140 - Section 1 - Question 06

December 2013

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Target time: 1:04

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT140 S1 Q06
+LR
Strengthen +Streng
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Sampling +Smpl
A
1%
154
B
5%
158
C
10%
158
D
84%
166
E
0%
154
137
147
157
 +Medium 148.137 +SubsectionMedium

J.Y.’s explanation

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Video of JY doing this

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A recent taste test reveals that most people like low-fat chocolate ice cream as much as its full-fat counterpart. Previous tests with vanilla ice cream found that people tended to dislike low-fat versions, complaining of a harsher taste. Chemists point out that chocolate is a very complex flavor, requiring around 500 distinct chemical compounds to produce it. Hence, this complexity probably masks any difference in taste due to the lack of fat.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that the complexity of chocolate probably masks differences in taste between full-fat and low-fat chocolate ice cream. This is based on the fact that in a taste test, most people like low-fat chocolate ice cream as much as full-fat versions. But with vanilla ice cream, people tend to dislike the taste of low-fat versions compared ot full-fat versions. In addition, chocolate is known to be a very complex flavor.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that there’s no other explanation besides complexity of flavor for the differing reactions between low-fat chocolate and low-fat vanilla. The author also assumes that vanilla is not as complex a flavor as chocolate.

A
Most people prefer full-fat chocolate ice cream to full-fat vanilla ice cream.
Whether more people like chocolate vs. vanilla is not at issue. The issue is what explains why people like low-fat vs. full-fat chocolate equally, whereas they like full-fat vanilla more than low-fat vanilla.
B
The subjects of the previous tests were not informed of the difference in fat content.
Whether the subjects in previous tests knew about the fat differences has no clear impact on what explains why people like low-fat and full-fat chocolate ice cream equally.
C
The more distinct compounds required to produce a flavor, the better people like it.
This suggests a more complex flavor will be more liked than a less complex flavor. But we’re concerned with comparisons between high-fat and low-fat within the same flavor. Why do people like low-fat vanilla less than high-fat vanilla, but like both versions of chocolate equally?
D
Vanilla is known to be a significantly less complex flavor than chocolate.
If vanilla were just as complex as chocolate, the author’s hypothesis about complexity masking taste wouldn’t make sense, because people dislike low-fat vanilla compared to high-fat. (D) defends the argument by confirming that vanilla is less complex than chocolate.
E
Most people are aware of the chemical complexities of different flavors.
People’s awareness of complexities of flavors has no clear impact. They may be aware, but we have no reason to think this relates to complexity of flavor helping to mask taste differences between high-fat and low-fat ice creams.

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LSAT PrepTest 140 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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