LSAT 147 – Section 4 – Question 19

LSAT 147 - Section 4 - Question 19

September 2016

You need a full course to see this video. Enroll now and get started in less than a minute.

Request new explanation

Target time: 1:17

This is question data from the 7Sage LSAT Scorer. You can score your LSATs, track your results, and analyze your performance with pretty charts and vital statistics - all with a Free Account ← sign up in less than 10 seconds

Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT147 S4 Q19
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
25%
162
B
66%
165
C
2%
156
D
6%
157
E
0%
157
139
154
169
 +Harder 146.282 +SubsectionMedium

Archaeologist: Neanderthals, a human-like species living 60,000 years ago, probably preserved meat by smoking it. Burnt lichen and grass have been found in many Neanderthal fireplaces. A fire of lichen and grass produces a lot of smoke but does not produce nearly as much heat or light as a wood fire.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that Neanderthals probably smoked their meat. This is based on the fact that burnt lichen and grass have been found in many Neanderthal fireplaces, and fire made from lichen and grass produces lots of smoke, but not as much heat or light as a fire from wood.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the Neanderthals did not burn the lichen and grass for heat, light, or other purposes besides smoking. The author also assumes that Neanderthals would not have used lichen/grass for heat/light if there existed a better material for that purpose.

A
In close proximity to the fireplaces with lichen and grass are other fireplaces that, evidence suggests, burned material that produced more heat than smoke.
This could strengthen the argument by showing that Neanderthals burned other material for heat, which suggests lichen and grass were not being burned for heat.
B
In the region containing the Neanderthal fireplaces in which lichen and grass were burnt, no plants that could be burned more effectively to produce heat or light were available 60,000 years ago.
This raises the possibility that Neanderthals burned lichen/grass for heat/light. Although wood can produce more heat/light, (B) tells us the Neanderthals didn’t have access to it. So, they might have used lichen/grass for heat/light because it was the best available material.
C
Some of the fireplaces containing burnt lichen are in regions in which lichen is not believed to have been plentiful and so would have had to have been brought in from some distance.
This suggests lichen was brought long distances. This is consistent with the theory that it was burned for its smoke.
D
There is clear evidence that at least some groups of Neanderthals living more recently than 60,000 years ago developed methods of preserving meat other than smoking it.
This concerns other groups living more recently that developed other methods of preserving meat. But the argument is about what conclusions we can draw about the Neanderthals who used the fireplaces around which burnt lichen and grass have been found.
E
The ability to preserve meat through smoking would have made the Neanderthal humans less vulnerable to poor periods of hunting.
If anything, this strengthens the argument by suggesting Neanderthals had a strong reason to preserve meat by smoking.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 147 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply