LSAT 5 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q19

LR Question 19 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: A tree’s age can be determined by counting the annual…

QUESTION TYPE: Most Helps to Explain

ANALYSIS: To know the relative age of trees, you need some way of telling which tree is older than another. The stimulus doesn’t say how archaeologists could find that out. The right answer will explain how.

(Relative age of tombs means a ranking of the tombs from most recent to oldest or vice versa)

___________

1. This helps preserve the tombs, but it doesn’t let us know which is oldest.
2. Since all of the trees are from the Pazyryk valley it is irrelevant how they differ from trees in other valleys.
3. CORRECT. This sequence would let us know that the trees were all alive at the same time. Then whichever tree had more rings following that pattern would be the oldest. We could tell the relative age of each log by calculating age starting from the pattern.
4. This doesn’t tell us how they figured that out, which is what we are trying to explain.
5. That shows roughly how old the tombs are, but not which tomb is oldest.

Recap: The question begins with “A tree’s age can be determined by counting the annual”. It is a Paradox question. Learn how to master LSAT Paradox questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.