LSAT 106 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q10

RC Question 10 Explanation

DISCUSSION: Lines 40-46 describe a feedback loop. It’s a situation where a small change leads to further change.

For example, suppose you’re giving a speech. You make a small joke, and the audience finds it funny. They laugh. Their laughter gives you confidence, and you start speaking more eloquently. The audience notices, and they react more favorably to everything you say.

This further increases your confidence, and you speak even better. So a tiny positive change, a small joke, dramatically improved the quality of your speech.

Abstractly, a feedback loop has this form: An increase in variable X leads to an even larger increase in variable X.

The same variable has to increase even more. In the wrong answers, it’s generally a different variable that grows even more.

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1. CORRECT. Here, a small increase in the amount of decaying matter led to an even larger increase in the amount of decaying matter.
    
   That sounds like a feedback loop that amplified the initial change.
2. For this to be a feedback loop, the initial increase in wolves would have to lead to even more wolves.
3. For this to be a feedback loop, the initial deterioration in the  forest floor would have to lead to an even bigger deterioration in the forest floor.
4. Here, the final change is smaller than the initial change.
5. We’re looking for a change in the initial variable, electric lights.