LSAT 154 – Section 2 – Question 05

LSAT 154 - Section 2 - Question 05

September 2017

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT154 S2 Q05
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
94%
162
B
1%
149
C
2%
148
D
2%
151
E
1%
152
130
138
145
 +Easier 144.659 +SubsectionEasier

Salmon farmer: Farm-raised salmon is preferable to wild salmon due to its year-round availability, consistent quality, and cheaper price. But the best reason to prefer farmed salmon is ecological: as consumers’ desire for farmed salmon increases, the market for threatened wild salmon drops, which in turn leads to more wild fish being allowed to live and multiply freely, thus increasing their numbers.

Summarize Argument
The salmon farmer concludes that the best reason for choosing farmed salmon over wild salmon is that the farmed option is more eco-friendly. As support, he points to a cause-and-effect chain that suggests farmed salmon is the more eco-friendly choice. Specifically, preference for farmed salmon takes the pressure off of wild salmon, which allows wild populations to recover.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that there aren’t any significant ecological downsides to farmed salmon that would undermine its eco-friendliness.
Also, by concluding that eco-friendliness is the single best reason for choosing farmed salmon, she assumes that any other advantages that farmed salmon might have are less important when compared with the ecological advantages.

A
Farmed salmon are fed with large quantities of small fish caught in areas where wild salmon attempt to feed.
This raises an ecological downside of preferring farmed salmon: it could reduce food sources for wild salmon, potentially harming those wild populations. This negative ecological effect weakens the author’s whole line of reasoning, as choosing farmed salmon may hurt wild salmon.
B
Though some wild salmon may be of lesser quality than farmed salmon, some is far better.
“Quality” is an irrelevant point of comparison—the conclusion only cares about the ecological benefits of farmed salmon. If anything, (B) slightly strengthens by helping to rule out quality as a competing “best reason” to choose farmed salmon.
C
Most people who eat salmon are not aware of any differences between the taste of wild salmon and that of farmed salmon.
This strengthens the argument. It helps to rule out taste as a competing “best reason” to choose farmed salmon.
D
Limits on the number of salmon that can be taken from the wild have led to increases in the price of wild salmon.
It’s unclear what effect this has on the argument. First, we don’t know what’s happening to the price of farmed salmon—is it also increasing? Second, nothing here suggests that price is now a “better reason,” or eco-friendliness a worse one, for choosing farmed salmon.
E
Wild salmon are more likely than farmed salmon to have consumed pollutants that may be harmful to humans.
It’s unclear what effect this has on the argument, because nothing here suggests that human safety is now a “better reason,” or eco-friendliness a worse one, for choosing farmed salmon.

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LSAT PrepTest 154 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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