LSAT 152 – Section 1 – Question 13

LSAT 152 - Section 1 - Question 13

November 2018

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT152 S1 Q13
+LR
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
3%
158
B
10%
158
C
76%
162
D
2%
153
E
9%
159
129
144
160
 +Medium 148.23 +SubsectionMedium

When so many oysters died off the coast of Britain that some native species were threatened with extinction, the fact that the water temperature had recently risen was at first thought to be the cause. Later, however, the cause was determined to be the chemical tributyl tin (TBT), used to keep barnacles off the hulls of boats. Legislation that banned TBT has nearly eliminated that chemical from British waters, yet the populations of the endangered oyster species have not grown.

"Surprising" Phenomenon
Despite TBT being banned, the endangered oyster population hasn’t grown.

Objective
The correct answer will be a hypothesis that explains why the TBT ban didn’t help the endangered oyster population as expected. That explanation must provide some new problem facing the oyster population after TBT was banned, or some reason that TBT was in some way useful to the oyster population.

A
The increase in water temperature has slowed in the years since the legislation was passed.
The increase in water temperature wasn’t the problem. We need to know why the TBT ban didn’t help the osyters.
B
Native oysters rely on different sources of food than do the barnacles that live on the hulls of boats.
If anything, this eliminates one way the TBT ban could’ve gone wrong—that barnacles competed with oysters for food. It certainly doesn’t explain why the TBT ban was ineffective.
C
TBT also killed imported varieties of oysters that flourish at the expense of native oysters now that the waters are warmer.
TBT eliminated competition that harmed the native oysters. The competition intensified after the TBT ban, hence why the native oyster population hasn’t rebounded.
D
Other chemicals that are used to remove barnacles from the hulls of boats seem to have little effect on the oyster populations.
Like (B), this removes some possible downside of the TBT ban—that the chemicals that replaced TBT were also harmful to the oysters. We need to know why the oyster population didn’t grow after the TBT ban.
E
TBT is more deadly to oysters in colder waters than in warmer waters.
TBT was banned, so it can’t factor into an explanation for why the oyster population hasn’t rebounded.

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LSAT PrepTest 152 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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