LSAT 118 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q5

LR Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Rats fed high doses of the artificial sweetener saccharin …

QUESTION TYPE: Paradox

PARADOX: Rats that are fed saccharin develop bladder cancer. Mice that are fed saccharin don’t.

ANALYSIS: There must be some relevant difference between rats and mice that explains why saccharin causes bladder cancer in rats but not mice.

So let’s first look at why rats get cancer.

1. They develop crystals that are toxic to cells in the bladder.
2. When the cells come back, some of the cells are cancerous.

So something within mice is different, where this chain of events doesn’t happen. Maybe they can’t develop those crystals. Maybe their cells are better at fighting off the crystals.

Anything that tells you why mice don’t face the same fate. The most obvious answer is that something in mice prevents the crystals from forming in the first place.

___________

1. CORRECT. If mice don’t have the relevant protein, there’s no crystals, and thus no cancer. This explains the difference.
2. We don’t know how the speed of regeneration plays into getting cancer. There’s no good reason to believe that fast regeneration = no cancer.
3. But in the stimulus, both rats and mice are fed high doses. So this doesn’t help differentiate why mice aren’t getting cancer.
4. Similar to C. This differentiates between cells, not between mice and rats like we need.
5. This might make things even more confusing. If other artificial sweeteners cause this reaction, why doesn’t saccharin? In any case, this gives us information about other sweeteners. We care specifically about saccharin and why it affects rats but not mice.