LSAT 148 – Section 3 – Question 02

LSAT 148 - Section 3 - Question 02

December 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: 1:01

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
PT148 S3 Q02
+LR
+Exp
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Analogy +An
A
0%
154
B
3%
155
C
86%
164
D
5%
155
E
6%
156
134
144
153
 +Medium 149.233 +SubsectionMedium

Archaeologist: For 2,000 years the ancient Sumerians depended on irrigation to sustain the agriculture that fed their civilization. But eventually irrigation built up in the soil toxic levels of the salts and other impurities left behind when water evaporates. When its soil became unable to support agriculture, Sumerian civilization collapsed. A similar fate is thus likely to befall modern civilizations that continue to rely heavily on irrigation for agriculture.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that modern civilizations that continue to rely heavily on irrigation for agriculture are likely to collapse. This is based on a comparison to the ancient Sumerian civilization, which relied on irrigation for agriculture. After irrigation built up toxic levels of salts and other impurities in the soil, the Sumerian civilization collapsed.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the problem of toxic levels of salts and other impurities faced by the Sumerians is likely to face modern civilizations that rely on irrigation for agriculture.

A
Most modern civilizations could not feed themselves through agriculture without relying heavily on irrigation.
This suggests modern civilizations need irrigation to feed themselves through agriculture. But this doesn’t relate to whether such reliance will lead to collapse from toxic soil.
B
Factors unrelated to the use of irrigation would probably have caused Sumerian civilization to collapse sooner or later.
Even if other factors would have led to the Sumerian collapse, that doesn’t change the fact that toxic soils contributed to the Sumerian collapse or whether what happened to the Sumerians will happen to modern civilizations.
C
Many modern farmers use irrigation techniques that avoid the buildup of salts and other toxic impurities in the soil.
This points out why what happened to the Sumerians might not happen to modern civilziations. Modern techniques might not lead to toxic levels of salt and impurities in soil.
D
Many modern civilizations do not rely to any significant extent on irrigation for agriculture.
We’re concerned with what happens to the ones that do rely on irrigation for agriculture. But whether these kinds of civilization are common or rare doesn’t relate to whether these kinds, however many there are, will collapse.
E
The soil of ancient Sumeria already contained some toxic salts and other impurities before the Sumerians started using irrigation for agriculture.
We have no reason to think modern soil doesn’t also contain some toxic salts and other impurities. In addition, even if modern soil doesn’t already have this, that just means it might take longer for the collapse. But (E) doesn’t suggest there wouldn’t be a collapse.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 148 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply