LSAT 152 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q19

LR Question 19 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: European wood ants incorporate large quantities of …

QUESTION TYPE: Evaluate the Argument

CONCLUSION: The ants probably started using conifer resin as protection against disease.

REASONING: Resin is a natural disinfectant, and it kills bacteria that can cause disease in wood ants.

ANALYSIS: The argument is making a causal claim. Whenever there’s a causal claim, you want to consider whether there are other plausible explanations.

If resin gave some other big benefit, then the disease-protection story becomes much less compelling.

___________

1. This sounds relevant, but it is not the best thing to know. Even if resin’s disinfectant effect lasts a long time, that still would not show that disease protection is the reason ants use it.
2. Seasonal variation might be interesting, but without more context it does not tell us much about why ants evolved this behavior.
3. Other ant species could be interesting as a comparison, but again it would not directly tell us whether disease protection explains this species’ use.
4. CORRECT. If resin provides major structural benefits, then the argument that ants use it because it fights disease becomes much weaker.
5. The evolutionary purpose of resin for trees is beside the point. What matters is why ants use it.