LSAT 144 – Section 2 – Question 09

LSAT 144 - Section 2 - Question 09

October 2015

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT144 S2 Q09
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
15%
160
B
79%
165
C
0%
150
D
5%
159
E
0%
153
129
144
160
 +Medium 148.975 +SubsectionMedium

Two lakes in the Pawpaw mountains, Quapaw and Highwater, were suffering from serious declines in their fish populations ten years ago. Since that time, there has been a moratorium on fishing at Quapaw Lake, and the fish population there has recovered. At Highwater Lake, no such moratorium has been imposed, and the fish population has continued to decline. Thus, the ban on fishing is probably responsible for the rebound in the fish population at Quapaw Lake.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the ban on fishing caused the fish population at Quapaw Lake to rebound. His evidence is that the fish population at Quapaw Lake rebounded after a fishing ban was put in place. On the other hand, the fish population at Highwater Lake, where there was no fishing ban, didn’t rebound.

Notable Assumptions
In order for the fishing ban to have made a difference at Quapaw Lake, the author must assume there was a substantial amount of fishing at Quapaw Lake before the ban went into effect. The author must also assume that no unaccounted-for outside factor (e.g. climate conditions, introduction of new species into the lake) caused the rebound.

A
Highwater Lake is in an area of the mountains that is highly susceptible to acid rain.
This provides an alternate explanation as to why the fish population at Highwater Lake continued to decline. However, for this to weaken the author’s conclusion we would need to know if Quapaw Lake isn’t located in an area highly susceptible to acid rain.
B
Prior to the ban, there was practically no fishing at Quapaw Lake.
The fishing ban couldn’t have caused the fish population to rebound at Quapaw Lake. There was hardly any fishing to begin with.
C
Highwater Lake is much larger than Quapaw Lake.
We don’t care how big the lakes are. We care about their fish populations and how fishing bans effect them.
D
Several other lakes in the Pawpaw mountains have recently had increases in their fish populations.
Perhaps those lakes also had fishing bans put in place.
E
There used to be a greater variety of fish species in Highwater Lake than in Quapaw Lake, but there no longer is.
We don’t care about variety. We care about the total population.

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LSAT PrepTest 144 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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