LR Question 6 Explanation
QUESTION TYPE: Must be True
FACTS:
- More cholesterol in the blood leads to a higher risk of heart attack.
- Heart disease is the biggest killer in North America.
- At least three factors (smoking, drinking and exercise) can influence blood cholesterol.
ANALYSIS: This is a great question that shows how tricky the LSAT can be.
Two of the wrong answer choices talk about smoking increasing the risk of heart disease. Many people will nod their heads at those answer choices even if they don’t pick them.
But the stimulus didn’t say what smoking did. It may even lower cholesterol. We assume smoking is bad, but the stimulus did not tell us whether smoking is actually bad.
This is one of the big tricks the LSAT uses. Subtle language causes you to think of outside knowledge and make incorrect assumptions.
___________
- We don’t know this. Risk may be lower. But it isn’t necessarily “low.”
- Technically this stimulus doesn’t say what smoking does to cholesterol. Maybe it lowers it. This answer choice is trying to trick you by playing on outside assumptions.
- This is tempting but doesn’t have to be true. We only know that cholesterol is a risk factor. There could be other risk factors that are much more harmful and cause more death.
- The stimulus did not say that smoking was bad. If you think it did, read it again. This is a classic example of how the LSAT can trick you.
- CORRECT. If you change one of the three factors you’ll change your cholesterol. That in turn changes your risk of heart disease. Those three factors are part of our lifestyle.
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Hi Graeme,
First, thanks for making this incredible resource. Loads of good karma always and forever coming your way.
This question really stumped me because I’ve been training my eye to rely heavily on clues in the language. Which has served me well, but I’m starting to notice that it’s not always a safe bet.
After your explanation, I can see – ya okay, C was wrong because diet is not the only factor, but E threw me because it introduces the word ‘lifestyle’.
So I was wondering if you could touch base on how certain questions rely on self-contained information whereas others, such as this Must Be True, ask me to deduce that smoking, drinking, and exercise are lifestyles — because I’ve personally always thought of those as habits.
Thanks again,
TJ