LSAT 8 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q11

LR Question 11 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: A distemper virus has caused two-thirds of the seal…

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: The pollution of the North Sea weakened the immune system of the seals. This caused them to become very vulnerable to the distemper virus.

REASONING: There must have been a reason the normally latent (passive) virus could act so suddenly.

ANALYSIS: Remember that any support is generally enough. The right answer provides some support by showing that the local ecosystem seems to have been in trouble from a common cause.

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1. CORRECT. This provides very weak support but it does support the argument. Other species are also experiencing sudden drops. There may be a common cause. It might be pollution. Pollution affects all species. If it were merely a different type of seal virus then we wouldn’t expect birds and shellfish to die.
2. So? If anything this tells us that pollution is less severe than we would expect.
3. Gross! Those are polluted waters. But how does this support the idea that pollution weakened seals’ immune systems.
4. This is just an interesting fact about seals. It doesn’t tell us that they’re vulnerable to pollution.
5. This would have happened whether or not the immune systems were weakened. New viruses are always particularly deadly.

Recap: The question begins with “A distemper virus has caused two-thirds of the seal”. It is a Strengthen question. Learn how to master LSAT Strengthen questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.