LSAT 151 – Section 2 – Question 16

LSAT 151 - Section 2 - Question 16

September 2018

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT151 S2 Q16
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
61%
162
B
4%
157
C
5%
154
D
28%
159
E
2%
151
132
152
172
 +Medium 147.144 +SubsectionMedium

Scientist: An orbiting spacecraft detected a short-term spike in sulfur dioxide in Venus’s atmosphere. Volcanoes are known to cause sulfur dioxide spikes in Earth’s atmosphere, and Venus has hundreds of mountains that show signs of past volcanic activity. But we should not conclude that volcanic activity caused the spike on Venus. No active volcanoes have been identified on Venus, and planetary atmospheres are known to undergo some cyclical variations in chemical composition.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that we should not conclude that volcanic activity caused the short-term spike in sulfur dioxide on Venus. This is based on the fact that no active volcanoes have been identified on Venus, and planetary atmospheres are known to undergo cyclical variations in chemical composition.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that inactive volcanoes could not have produced a short-term spike in sulfur dioxide on Venus. The author also assumes that there aren’t any active volcanoes that we haven’t identified on Venus that could have produced the spike. Another assumption is that the cyclical variations in chemical composition could have accounted for the spike in sulfur dioxide.

A
Conditions on Venus make it unlikely that any instrument targeting Venus would detect a volcanic eruption directly.
This suggests that there might be active volcanoes on Venus that we haven’t identified. If we can’t identify eruptions directly, that raises the possibility that our failure to identify active volcanoes doesn’t guarantee the absence of active volcanoes on Venus.
B
Evidence suggests that there was a short-term spike in sulfur dioxide in Venus’s atmosphere 30 years earlier.
It’s not clear what a short-term spike 30 years ago has to do with the short-term spike detected recently.
C
Levels of sulfur dioxide have been higher in Venus’s atmosphere than in Earth’s atmosphere over the long term.
We detected a short-term spike in sulfur dioxide on Venus. Comparative levels of sulfur dioxide on Venus and Earth don’t shed light on the cause of a short-term spike.
D
Traces of the sulfur dioxide from volcanic eruptions on Earth are detectable in the atmosphere years after the eruptions take place.
This suggests that traces of sulfur dioxide can last a long time from volcanoes. But this doesn’t explain a short-term spike in sulfur dioxide. We’re not just trying to explain the presence of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere; we’re trying to explain a short-term spike.
E
Most instances of sulfur dioxide spikes in the Earth’s atmosphere are caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
If anything, this might strengthen the author’s argument by suggesting another explanation for the short-term spikes on Venus besides volcanoes.

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LSAT PrepTest 151 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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