Steele claims to have found evidence for Lamarckian hereditary mechanism in the immune system. Not sure what this means but presumably the rest of the passage will flesh this out.
How does our immune system work? If knowledge of how to defend against attacks are coded in the genes, how does it defend against a new disease, something it's never encountered before?
Partial Explanation ·Some immune system cells mutate a lot
The immune system doesn't know. But "typo" mutations (when an error occurs when transcribing DNA into RNA) happen a lot which allows immune system to test different defenses.
Steele hypothesizes that the "typo" mutations that end up working gets coded back into the immune cell's DNA. Steele further hypothesizes that a virus then carries the altered immune cell DNA into the DNA of the reproductive cells. That's the mechanism by which an environmentally induced adaptation (in the immune cell) gets inherited.
Other Biologists ·No, there are simpler explanations for the "pattern of mutations"
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
24.
What is the primary function ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █ ██████
Question Type
Purpose of paragraph
Structure
P4 describes Steele’s evidence for his hypothesis.
a
to present various ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
The author doesn’t present “various objections” raised to Steele’s hypothesis. Although the author notes that other biologists aren’t convinced, we don’t get any specific arguments against Steele’s hypothesis. Even if you think the idea that Steele’s hypothesis is “radical” is an objection, that doesn’t capture “various objections.” Since (A) doesn’t happen, it can’t be the primary purpose of the last paragraph.
b
to dismiss the ██████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ████████
This is too negative. The author doesn’t dismiss Steele’s hypothesis. Although the author doesn’t necessarily agree with it, this doesn’t imply she dismisses it. Also, the last paragraph brings up Steele’s evidence; so the author doesn’t suggest Steele’s hypothesis doesn’t have evidence.
c
to explain how ███ ██████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███████
The last paragraph doesn’t discuss any potential changes to Steele’s hypothesis. So (C) can’t be the purpose of the last paragraph.
d
to suggest several ████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ████████ █████████ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
Although we might get ideas for further research based on what’s discussed in the last paragraph, the author does not raise potential research directions. She doesn’t suggest that anyone should do more research or that we might benefit from more research.
e
to indicate the ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
This best captures the purpose of the last paragraph. The author presents Steele’s evidence for his hypothesis. The “nature” of this evidence refers to what the evidence is as well as the fact that it’s circumstantial.
Difficulty
64% of people who answer get this correct
This is a difficult question.
It is similar in difficulty to other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%150
158
75%166
Analysis
Purpose of paragraph
Structure
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Science
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
19%
159
b
12%
159
c
2%
152
d
3%
154
e
64%
166
Question history
You don't have any history with this question.. yet!
You've discovered a premium feature!
Subscribe to unlock everything that 7Sage has to offer.
Hold on there, stranger! You need a free account for that.
We love that you want to get going. Just create a free account below—it only takes a minute—and then you can continue!
Hold on there, stranger! You need a free account for that.
We love that you came here to read all the amazing posts from our 300,000+ members. They all have accounts too! Just create a free account below—it only takes a minute—and then you’re free to discuss anything!
Hold on there, stranger! You need a free account for that.
We love that you want to give us feedback! Just create a free account below—it only takes a minute—and then you’re free to vote on this!
Subscribers can learn all the LSAT secrets.
Happens all the time: now that you've had a taste of the lessons, you just can't stop -- and you don't have to! Click the button.