LSAT 146 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q7

LR Question 7 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The Kuna, a people native to several Panamanian islands…

QUESTION TYPE: Most Strongly Supported

FACTS:

1. The Kuna who live on Panamanians islands generally avoid high blood pressure.
2. The Kuna who move to the mainland have normal rates of high blood pressure.
3. Island Kuna drink lots of cocoa. The Kuna on the mainland don’t.
4. Because it is not processed much, the cocoa is high in flavonoids.

ANALYSIS: The facts above suggest that flavonoids reduce the rate of high blood pressure.

Most strongly supported questions don’t need to be 100% supported. There can be wiggle room. So don’t look for tiny ways the answer can be wrong. Just combine the facts in order to determine a probable inference.

___________

1. Not so. The key difference is whether the Kuna get flavonoids. Availability of cocoa on the mainland (for example) is not relevant unless the Kuna there actually drink it.
2. It doesn’t matter why the Kuna drink cocoa. It only matters that they do. 
3. This is not supported, for two reasons:
    
   1. Kuna blood pressure changes when they move to the mainland.
   2. The argument didn’t say the Kuna have low blood pressure. It said they lack high blood pressure. There’s a difference between “not high” and “low”. “Not high” can merely mean normal, whereas “low” is usually a problem.
4. This isn’t supported. The argument only compared island Kuna and mainland Kuna. We have no information about the blood pressure of people who aren’t Kuna.
5. CORRECT. This is supported based on the facts. The cocoa is the only difference we know about, and the flavonoids are the only feature of cocoa we know about.