7Sage LSAT

Self-study
Group classes
Tutoring
Admissions consulting
Discussion & resources

Explanations

PT104.S1.Q4

SECTION 1 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

SECTION 2 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6

PASSAGE 2
Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14

PASSAGE 3
Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21

PASSAGE 4
Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

SECTION 3 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7

PASSAGE 2
Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14

PASSAGE 3
Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21

PASSAGE 4
Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

SECTION 4 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

PrepTest 104 - Section 1 - Question 4

Question

Explanation

Analytics

Show analysis

In Yasukawa's month-long study of blackbirds, the percentage of smaller birds that survived the duration of the study exceeded the percentage of larger birds that survived. ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ██ █ ███████████ ██ █ ███████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ █ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████ █████ ███████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ████ ██████ █████

WTF Kind Of Question Is This?

It’s best to think of this as a Weaken question – our job is to provide a new piece of information that, if true, bolsters Yasukawa’s position and undermines the author’s position.

When a question stem uses uncommon wording, it’s critical to make sure you’re clear on its exact meaning. The right answer to this question, for example, is super easy to dismiss if you think this is an MSS question.

Argument Structure

Yasukawa concluded that size determines survival chances. Specifically, he concluded that smaller is better (for survival). Our author thinks this conclusion is wrong because age is a potential confounding factor. Smaller birds are younger birds, so perhaps the survival rates Yasukawa observed are actually due to age-related factors.

In short, the author accuses Yasukawa’s study of not controlling for age. Since our job is to defend Yasukawa’s position against the author’s attack, we’re looking for information that indicates Yasukawa did control for age – reasons to think the small vs. large blackbirds weren’t actually different ages.

Analysis by MichaelWright

Show answer

Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ █ ████████████████ ██ ███

Yasukawa compared the ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ █ ██████ ███ █ ███████ ████████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ████████

If this were true, it would indicate that the blackbirds’ species accounts for the size differences between the groups, making it much less likely that the size difference was due to Yasukawa's failure to control for age.

Yasukawa examined blackbirds ██ █████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████████

Irrelevant. Yasukawa studying blackbirds in their natural habitat wouldn’t provide any relevant information about how size and age were considered in the study, which is what the author’s objection hinges on.

Yasukawa did not ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ██████

All the claims in this stimulus – from both Yasukawa and the author – strictly compare some blackbirds to other blackbirds. Other species of birds aren't relevant to this conversation.

Yasukawa noted that ███ ██████ ██████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ███████████

We're looking for information that distinguishes age from size as potential causes of the difference in survival rates. Learning that smaller birds more often lose fights would only split the difference between age and size if fighting well were an obviously age-but-not-size based (or size-but-not-age based) skill.

Yasukawa noted that ███ ██████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ███████████ ██████ ███████████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ███████████

This arguably weakens both positions (the author's and Yasukawa's) by presenting a third potential cause aside from both age and size. Information about social hierarchies would only be relevant if social hierarchies were an obviously age-but-not-size related thing.

Difficulty

Question

89% of people who answer get this correct

This is a slightly challenging question.

CURVE

Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right

25% 124

138

75% 153

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Miscellaneous (LR)

Stems that depart from traditional question types, or phrase the challenge in an unusual way.

Weaken

Stems that ask us to provide an additional piece of information that, if true, would weaken the argument in the stimulus. Learn more.

Stimulus Tags

Misdirected response

Counterarguments that either mischaracterize their opponent's position, or fail to address key elements of their reasoning.

Sampling

Stimuli that take data from a small pool (e.g. college students) and draw conclusions about a larger pool (e.g. people in general), where the sample pool may be unrepresentative of the broader pool (e.g. measuring science literacy). Learn more.

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

89%

169

156

164

165

Question history

You don't have any history with this question.. yet!