Few animals brave the midday heat of the Sahara Desert. An exception is the silver ant, which chooses this time of day to leave its nest and scout for food, typically the corpses of heat-stricken animals. Even the silver ant, however, must be careful: at such times they can become victims of the heat themselves.Which one of the following, if true, LEAST helps to explain the silver ant's choice of scavenging times?
Answer(s): E
Four of the five choices explain why the silver ant scouts for food in the blazing midday heat of the Sahara Desert, notwithstanding the little critters' vulnerability to heat. The absence of predators [The chief predators of the silver...] would certainly explain why that time of day would seem fortuitous. So would the greater ease of picking up navigational cues, [The cues that silver ants use to...]; better get the scouting done now rather than later. That better-now-than-later idea is picked up by option [Other scavengers remove any...] as well: The later the ant waits, [Other scavengers remove any...] suggests, the less food there is to forage. And [The temperature inside...] suggests that it's all just a matter of relativity. If it's hotter inside their nests than outside of them, who can blame the ants for getting out?In contrast to those four eminently reasonable explanations, correct choice [Silver ants cool themselves by] sidesteps the whole issue. "Random light breezes" could come along at any time of day, and so the insects' own particular form of air conditioning is of no help in explaining why the ants choose to forage during the blazing midday.
The same task triggers different levels of awareness of one's surroundings, called environmental awareness, in different individuals. Mathematical puzzles, for example, cause most people to increase such an awareness. Some people -- those who formulate the answer visually, imagining the numbers in their mind's eye -- will, in an attempt to freeze the picture, experience a decrease in environmental awareness while solving the puzzle. Other people's environmental awareness may rise during the exercise, because their brains are signaling a rest at the end of every stage of problem solving.Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?
Answer(s): A
After defining the concept of environmental awareness and focusing on how that awareness is triggered, the stimulus goes on to explain that most people's is triggered by doing a math puzzle, but that some (we're in sentence 3 now) find it decreased.
Art historian: Great works of art have often elicited outrage when first presented; in Europe, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring prompted a riot, and Manet's Dejeuner sur Vherbe elicited outrage and derision. So, since it is clear that art is often shocking, we should not hesitate to use public funds to support works of art that many people find shocking.Which one of the following is an assumption that the art historian's argument requires in order for its conclusion to be properly drawn?
Answer(s): D
Assumptions often emerge when a term creeps into the conclusion but isn't mentioned in the evidence. The conclusion is the first and only place where we hear about public funding of art. In order to conclude that public funds should fund shocking art, the author first must assume that public funds should fund art, period -- which makes option [Public funds should...] correct. If option [Public funds should...] is false, then the entire argument is moot. That "art is often shocking" doesn't imply that "most art is shocking"; often and most are not identical concepts. Stravinsky and Manet [Stravinsky and Manet received...] make cameo appearances here solely to act as examples of creators of shocking art; as noted earlier, public funding isn't even mentioned until one sentence later. Option [Art used to be more...] raises a comparison with the past that is not so much as hinted at. As for [Anything that shocks is art.], the author is concerned with the funding of art that shocks, not things that shock in general.
Researchers have discovered that caffeine can be as physically addictive as other psychoactive substances. Some people find that they become unusually depressed, drowsy, or even irritable if they do not have their customary dose of caffeine. This is significant because as many people consume caffeine as consume any one of the other addictive psychoactive substances.Which one of the following can be logically concluded from the information above?
F. is a straightforward inference from the last sentence. We're told that "as many people consume" caffeine as consume any "other physically addictive psychoactive substance." So assuming, as option [If alcohol is a physically addictive...] does, that alcohol qualifies as one such "other" substance, there may be the same number of consumers of caffeine as of alcohol, but the latter cannot possibly outnumber the former.
A nationwide poll of students, parents, and teachers showed that over 90 percent believe that an appropriate percentage of their school's budget is being spent on student counseling programs. It seems, then, that any significant increase in a school's budget should be spent on something other than student counseling programs.Which one of the following describes a flaw in the reasoning of the argument above?
Answer(s): B
Why should any additional cash be applied to some area other than student counseling? Because almost everyone concerned believes that the right percentage of the budget is already going there. But percentage and amount are two different things, as option [The argument confuses the percentage of...] points out. If budget dollars were to go up but the percentage allotted to counseling were to remain the same, then fewer dollars would be spent on counseling, a state of affairs that might not please anybody.No causality, confused or otherwise, is described in the argument of [The argument confuses a mere...]. The author makes no such claim such as [The argument fails to justify its presumption that...] describes; to argue that a part of a whole is adequate is not necessarily to commit a part to whole fallacy. Option [The argument fails to consider the possibility...] raises a couple of issues irrelevant to the argument, namely saving money and the content of counseling programs. As for option [The argument fails to consider that if more money...], the argument pretty much does consider that money spent in one area takes money away from another, and anyway, that point isn't central to the logical error.
Post your Comments and Discuss Test Prep LSAT Test exam prep with other Community members:
Our website is free, but we have to fight against AI bots and content theft. We're sorry for the inconvenience caused by these security measures. You can access the rest of the LSAT Test content, but please register or login to continue.