LSAT 146 – Section 3 – Question 02
LSAT 146 - Section 3 - Question 02
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Question QuickView |
Type | Tags | Answer Choices |
Curve | Question Difficulty |
Psg/Game/S Difficulty |
Explanation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PT146 S3 Q02 |
+LR
| Strengthen +Streng Causal Reasoning +CausR | A
3%
158
B
7%
162
C
4%
158
D
83%
165
E
2%
161
|
126 141 156 |
+Easier | 146.758 +SubsectionMedium |
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that an unstable climate was likely a major factor in the fall of the Roman empire. This is based on an observation that Europe’s climate was unstable during the time of the Roman empire’s decline and fall. The author suggests a causal link with the empire’s fall, because an unstable climate could be bad for food production, thus weakening the empire.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that there are not other, much more significant alternative explanations for the fall of the Roman empire. The author also assumes that any difficulty caused by lower food production was great enough to contribute to the empire’s downfall.
A
Political failures within the Roman empire during its last years led to conflicts that hampered agricultural production.
This weakens the author’s hypothesis by providing an alternative explanation for the fall of the Roman empire. Either way, this doesn’t support unstable climate as a major cause.
B
The areas of the Roman empire that had the greatest climatic instability between 250 A.D. and 550 A.D. did not experience unusual levels of unrest during that period.
This weakens the author’s assumption that an unstable climate had a negative enough effect to bring down the empire; if that were the case, we would expect the areas with more climactic instability to have higher unrest.
C
Poor farming practices led to depleted soil in many parts of Europe during the last years of the Roman empire.
This weakens the author’s hypothesis by providing an alternative explanation for instability due to poor food production: poor farming practices, rather than an unstable climate. In other words, the unstable climate may have only been a minor cause.
D
During periods when the Roman empire was thriving, Europe consistently experienced weather that was favorable for agriculture.
This strengthens the author’s hypothesis by more closely correlating climate stability with the empire’s strength, supporting the hypothesis that an unstable climate could have been a major factor in the empire’s failure.
E
Total food production in Europe was likely greater in the years around 550 A.D. than in the years around 250 A.D.
This is irrelevant, because it still doesn’t tell us how significant the impact of the unstable climate was on food production. Sure, production rose and fell, but how much? It also doesn’t offer any explanation of how food production impacted the Roman empire.
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LSAT PrepTest 146 Explanations
Section 1 - 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
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
- Question 26
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