LSAT 155 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q5

LR Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Seasonal allergy symptoms are the immune system’s response to…

QUESTION TYPE: Most Strongly Supported

FACTS:

1. Allergy symptoms come from the immune response to pollen.
2. Inhalation of lots of pollen will trigger an inflammatory response, leading to allergy symptoms.
3. Medicines can minimize these symptoms.
4. Staying inside on dry, windy days in allergy season is another effective way to avoid the symptoms.

ANALYSIS: This stimulus tells us how allergic reactions happen – you inhale pollen, and the immune system causes a reaction in response. You can take medicine that lessens the immune response, or you can just avoid inhaling pollen by staying inside.

With Most Strongly Supported questions, you often have to look at the answers and figure out which has the most support. It’s hard to prephrase, because the answer isn’t necessarily 100% true (like in a Must be True), it’s just “strongly supported”.

___________

1. It doesn’t sound like the medication prevents people from inhaling pollen. The medication softens the immune response to the inhalation. It would be hard to not inhale the pollen if you’re outside on a pollen-heavy day!
2. Nothing in the stimulus supports this at all. There’s nothing that talks about type of pollen, or some pollens not causing a reaction.
3. CORRECT. If inhaling large amounts of pollen causes a response, and staying inside avoids that response, then the people staying inside are probably not inhaling large amounts of pollen!
4. We don’t have evidence for this. In fact, the author positions them as alternate solutions to the same problem. Why would you need to take medicine if you’re already staying inside?
5. This is an explanation for why staying inside might help. But it’s way too much to say is “strongly supported”. We don’t have anything that indicates to us that people with allergies have air filters to remove pollen.

Recap: The question begins with “Seasonal allergy symptoms are the immune system’s response to”. It is a Most Strongly Supported question. Learn how to master LSAT MSS questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.