LSAT 133 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q2

LR Question 2 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Jocko, a chimpanzee, was once given a large bunch of…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: Jocko purposefully avoided making noise to prevent the other chimpanzees from taking his banana.

REASONING: Jocko was given a single banana when he kept silent. When he was given many bananas he made a lot of “food barks” and the other chimpanzees came to get the bananas.

ANALYSIS: To weaken this we need to give an alternate explanation for Jocko’s silence. The correct answer shows that chimps will never make noise when give only a small quantity of food. This could be why Jocko stayed silent: if he had been given a large quantity then maybe he would still have barked and lost everything.

The wrong answers are all consistent with the idea that Jocko had learned to keep his mouth shut.

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1. If so, then presumably bananas are among a chimpanzee’s favorite foods: Jocko did make food barks when he got a larger amount of bananas. This doesn’t explain why he didn’t bark at a single banana.
2. CORRECT. This provides an alternate explanation: chimpanzees never make food barks if they’re given only a small quantity of food (such as a single banana.)
3. This could explain why the other chimpanzees stole the bananas. It doesn’t tell us why Jocko kept silent.
4. This could explain the initial food barks. But it doesn’t provide an alternate explanation for Jocko’s silence when he got a single banana.
5. This would explain why Jocko got so excited and why the other chimps stole the bananas. But it also strengthens the idea that Jocko stayed silent to prevent the loss of his banana.