LSAT 151 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q17

LR Question 17 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Traditional hatcheries raise fish in featureless environments …

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: Fish raised in experimental hatcheries are more likely to survive after release.

REASONING: Those fish are bolder in exploring new environments and trying new types of food.

ANALYSIS: The argument moves from a behavioral difference to a survival conclusion:

• Fish from experimental hatcheries are bolder.
• Therefore they are more likely to survive.

Why should boldness increase survival? The argument assumes that this greater willingness to explore and try food is a trait that actually helps fish survive in the wild.

Otherwise, we’d have no basis to conclude that these fish are more likely to survive.

___________

1. Irrelevant. The argument is about whether those fish survive better, not whether the method is affordable.
   Negation: It is not economically feasible to use experimental methods.
2. The argument doesn’t depend on denying environmental effects.
   Negation: The quality of the environment has a lot of effect on survival rate.
3. CORRECT. If timidity can cause death, then greater boldness can plausibly improve survival.
   Negation: Fish don’t die from being too timid in foraging for food.
4. Too strong. The argument only needs that boldness helps survival in some way. It does not require survival to depend on eating many different foods.
   Negation: The fish do not need to eat many different types of food to survive.
5. Irrelevant. The conclusion concerns whether boldness helps after release, not whether wild environments are always stimulating.
   Negation: Fish in the wild don’t always live in stimulating environments.