LSAT 147 | Section 3 | Reading Comprehension: Q19

RC Question 19 Explanation

DISCUSSION: The full line says “expert clinical community”. From context, this probably refers to a group of doctors and researchers with experience in certain drugs and diseases.

For instance, the community of HIV/AIDS researchers or the community of throat cancer researchers. These researchers may be spread all over the world – research communities aren’t usually based on geography.

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1. CORRECT. This is it. For instance, the HIV/AIDS research community focusses on how to cure and treat HIV/AIDS. Their body of knowledge is common clinical experience and published research on how to treat HIV/AIDS.
2. Doubtful. Medical experts live all over the world yet work on the same problems. Nothing in the passage suggests a geographic community of researchers.
3. This doesn’t have to be true. For instance, I’m sure the HIV/AIDS community has many opinions on topics I have no opinion about, because I am unfamiliar with the topic. It’s not a requirement that a community differ in opinion from other communities. The community just needs to be studying the same topic.
4. This answer throws in the term “ethics” to try to confuse  you. It’s true the passage is talking about the ethics of conducting experiments. But that’s a specific context. A community doesn’t have to have the same ethical opinions on all topics (e.g. should you give to charity? Do we owe a responsibility to family than to strangers?) 
5. What an odd answer. The passage doesn’t talk about research methods, or methods being used in multiple disciplines. (An ethical requirement in an experiment is not a research method).