LSAT 155 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q18

LR Question 18 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Some potential anticancer drugs work by depriving growing…

QUESTION TYPE: Most Strongly Supported

FACTS:

1. Some potential anticancer drugs work by depriving growing tumours of blood flow.
2. The drugs inhibit “angiogenesis”, which is the creation of new blood vessels.
3. These drugs also prevent obesity in rodents.

ANALYSIS: We’ve been told how the drugs work – they inhibit angiogenesis. This has two use cases that we’re told about – they deprive tumours (giving them an anticancer purpose) and prevent obesity in rodents.

Once we know we understand the stimulus, we should check the answer choices. In a Most Strongly Supported question, it’s hard to rephrase and you’ll typically need to look at the choices.

___________

1. We don’t really know this. We just know that the drugs affect these two cells, but it doesn’t mean the cells are the most similar to each other.
2. We really can’t say this. Humans are pretty different from rodents, so there would need to be a lot more evidence before we can say it would do the same thing.
3. CORRECT. The drugs inhibit angiogenesis, and this has the effect of preventing obesity in rodents. That tells us that obesity in rodents probably requires angiogenesis.
4. This one is way out of left field. We don’t know anything about rodents with cancer, or which rodents are likely to be obese.
5. We definitely can’t reach this conclusion. We would have to make a couple leaps to get to absorption of vital nutrients (which is not mentioned in the stimulus at all), and so this is certainly not the most strongly supported.

Recap: The question begins with “Some potential anticancer drugs work by depriving growing”. It is a Most Strongly Supported question. Learn more about LSAT MSS questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.