PT156.S3.P4.Q27 > Analytics

Hide analysis

Organic chemist Larry Koskan's inspiration arrived in the mid-1980s, when he read a report by marine biologists describing how oyster shells grow. ██ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███████ █████████ ██ ██ █████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ █ ███████ █████████████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███████ ██████████████ ██████

Intro Topic · Discovery about oysters

Koskan inspired by oyster’s production of chemical.

Background · Acrylate

Acrylates used to clean industrial equipment.

Discovery · Aspartate

Aspartate produced by oysters achieves similar function.

Benefit · Biodegradable

██████████████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ████ ███ ██ ███████████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ █████████ █████ █████ █████████████ ████ █████████████ ████ ████████ ██████████████ ████ █ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████ ████ ████████ █████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████████████ ███

Benefit and functions · Acrylate cheap, versatile, detergent, disposable products

Acrylate benefits include being cheap and versatile. Uses include detergent and disposable products.

███ ███████ ███ █████████████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ █████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ █████████ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ██████████

Problem · Acrylate last forever, too much

Acrylate lasts forever and there’s too much in landfills.

Attempted solution · Aspartate replacement for acrylate

Koskan and others tried to commercialize aspartate.

Failure · Too expensive

It was too expensive to produce at scale, so others stopped.

████████ ████████ ████████ █████████ ████ █████████████ █████ ███████████ ██ ██████████████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███████████ ███████ █████████████ ███ █████ █████ ████████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █████████████ █████████ ██████ ███████ ████ █ ██████████ ███ ███████████████ ███ ████ █████

Successful solution · Aspartate successful in niche applications

Koskan successfully used aspartate in niche applications.

Passage Style

Single position

Spotlight

27.

The passage most strongly suggests ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ █████████████ ███ ██████████████

They perform identically ██████ ███ ██████████ ████████████

We know they perform similarly within some industrial applications (reducing scale). But there’s no support that they perform similarly within any industrial application. In order to pick this answer, we’d have to have support from the passage for the claim that in all industrial applications – every single one – polyaspartate and polyacrylate perform similarly. We don’t have any support for this, because we don’t know about every industrial application.

28%

They were both ██████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████████

The author never discusses how polyacrylates were discovered.

The chemical industry ███ █████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ████████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████

The author never discusses anything that reveals how long the chemical industry was aware of the existence of polyaspartate or polyacrylates before industrial applications were developed.

10%

They both have ████ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████████

Supported. The reference to phosphates’ pollution of surface water is not a random fact unrelated to polyacrylates. The passage implies that this water-polluting quality is undesirable, which is at least part of why polyacrylates are used instead. That means polyacrylates are used to reduce water pollution – without polyacrylates, we’d have more water pollution because of the phosphates. We also know that polyaspartate has been used to reduce water pollution from the second to last sentence in the passage.

46%

At the time ████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ████ █████████ █████ █████ ██████████ ████████

The author doesn’t discuss how leading chemical companies felt about polyacrylates when they were first brought to market. The passage also doesn’t discuss how leading chemical companies felt about polyaspartate when it first came to market. We know the chemical industry eventually stopped using polyaspartate, but that doesn’t tell us whether the industry was skeptical of polyaspartate at the beginning.

Answer five questions and we'll estimate your score.

It takes about five minutes.

Take the free diagnostic

More free LSAT prep: Sample LSAT questions Free practice test All free LSAT resources

PrepTest 156 - Section 3 - Passage 4 - Question 27

Answer five questions and we'll estimate your score.

Difficulty

Analysis

Answer Popularity

Question history

Confirm action