LSAT 132 | Section 1 | Reading Comprehension: Q19

RC Question 19 Explanation

DISCUSSION: The wrong answers either contradict the passage, aren’t mentioned in the passages, or are insane (answer A).

The right answer is found in both passages. Most RC questions really are as simple as that: if you know the passage, you know the answer.

___________

1. The author of passage B, in particular, might not agree with this. The Ban Chiang groups seem to have surprised researchers because they did not get more caries.
   Also, you should interpret answers literally. This answer would mean all populations, including our own, would constantly be having more tooth decay. That’s crazy. 
2. Nonsense. If tooth decay were hard to detect, then we couldn’t effectively study tooth decay in past populations.
3. “More prevalent” means more common. The authors disagree with this. 
4. CORRECT. Both authors agree. The last paragraph of passage A supports this, and so do lines 58-60 in passage B. The Early group had more decay even though the Ban Chiang groups became more agricultural over time (lines 36-38).
5. Passage A never mentions tooth wear! Only passage B mentions it, in lines 44-50.