LSAT 153 – Section 2 – Question 02

LSAT 153 - Section 2 - Question 02

June 2019

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

Request new explanation

Target time: 0:38

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
PT153 S2 Q02
+LR
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
4%
156
B
93%
162
C
0%
149
D
1%
148
E
1%
149
126
136
145
 +Easier 146.684 +SubsectionMedium

Biologist: Some small animals will instinctively go limp, “playing dead” when caught by a predator. But it is hard to see how playing dead can have survival value in this situation. The predator means to eat the animal just the same, whether or not it plays dead.

"Surprising" Phenomenon

Small animals sometimes play dead despite seemingly gaining no survival advantage from doing so.

Objective

The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains why small animals play dead. This explanation must make playing dead a rational thing for small animals to do when they’re caught by predators, likely by pointing out some survival advantage that the behavoir brings them.

A
Many small animal species will play dead when surprised by a loud noise or unexpected movement.

This seems as irrational as the behavior described in the stimulus. Why would playing dead protect small animals from the predators they imagine caused the loud noise or unexpected movement?

B
Predators often leave their food in a hiding place rather than eating it immediately.

If the small animals tried to escape, predators would know to kill them. But since predators think the small animals are dead, they simply bring them to a hiding spot to eat later. This allows the small animals to escape, which makes playing dead a clever, rational thing to do.

C
A small animal is more likely to play dead when caught by a predator if the predator species is common in the area.

We need to know how playing dead could possibly be useful for small animals. We don’t care about how common the predators are.

D
Most predators prey upon a variety of species, not all of which play dead when caught.

Sure, but why does it help small animals to play dead? We need to know how the behavior could be beneficial.

E
Many small animal species that do not play dead are capable of fighting off predators.

We know that the small animals in question were caught, so they’re definitely not fighting back. We need to know why they play dead rather than struggle to get free.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 153 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply