LSAT 156 – Section 4 – Question 12

LSAT 156 - Section 4 - Question 12

July 2020

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

Request new explanation

Target time: 1:28

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
PT156 S4 Q12
+LR
Weaken +Weak
A
1%
148
B
2%
152
C
25%
150
D
60%
160
E
12%
152
140
152
163
 +Medium 147.09 +SubsectionMedium

Ecologist: El Niño, a global weather phenomenon that occurs once every several years, is expected to become more frequent in coming decades due to the global warming caused by air pollution. In region T, El Niño causes heavy winter rainfall. Since rodent populations typically increase during long periods of sustained rain, it is likely that average rodent populations in region T will also increase in coming decades.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
An Ecologist hypothesizes that the rodent populations in region T will increase over the coming decades. This is because:
Rodent populations increase during long periods of sustained rain
El Nono, which causes heavy rainfall in region T, is expected to become much more frequent due to global warming

Notable Assumptions
The Ecologist assumes that El Nino will consistently bring enough heavy rainfall to cause an increase in the rodent population.
The Ecologist also assumes that there are no unintended consequences from sustained levels of heavy rainfall that would offset the increases to the rodent population.

A
In region T, there is typically much less rainfall in summer than there is in winter.
*When* it typically rains in region T has no impact on the reasoning of this argument. The reasoning is focused on the increased presence of El Nino causing increased rain, and thus increased rodent populations.
B
Rodent populations in region T often diminish during long periods in which there are no heavy rains.
This does not weaken the argument because the Ecologist assumes there *will* be heavy rains.
C
In many regions that, on average, experience substantially more winter rainfall than region T does, average rodent populations are considerably lower than they are in region T.
While this looks like it weakens the relationship between heavy rains and a high rodent population, the Ecologist is focused on region T. Data from other regions has too many conflicting variables.
D
In region T, winters marked by relatively high rainfall have usually not been marked by long periods of sustained rain.
This weakens the argument because it challenges the assumption that the heavy rainfall caused by El Nino will result in the *sustained* rainfall that is correlated with rodent population growth.
E
The global warming caused by air pollution produces a number of effects, other than the increase in the frequency of El Niño, that could affect rodent populations.
This answer choice doesn’t do anything because it does not specify *how* the global warning will impact rodent populations. Will it increase/decrease? It does not say.

Take PrepTest

Review Results

LSAT PrepTest 156 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

Get full LSAT course

Leave a Reply