LSAT 153 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q4

RC Question 4 Explanation

DISCUSSION: The key element of the oxygen-tree relationship is that it balances out. Trees give off oxygen when they grow, and then absorb it all back when they decompose.

So you should look for an answer where both sides are balanced out, and it is the same thing that goes up and down.

___________

1. This answer says the pay increases are partially eroded. Whereas oxygen is completely balanced out. This answer could have been correct had it said completely.
2. There’s no balance: this answer talks about making endangered plants more likely to survive! (If you shorten a life cycle, the organism can reproduce more).
    
   Beware parallel answers that have the same subject matter (trees:plants). They’re often totally wrong.
3. This answer talks about two different things. Energy is expended, cash is returned. In the original situation, by contrast, the same thing was on both sides of the equation: oxygen. Also, the oxygen balanced, whereas here the cash “more than pays” for the energy.
4. There’s no balance here. This is just constant increase! The equivalent would be a tree producing oxygen while it grows, and that this oxygen makes nearby trees produce even more oxygen.
5. CORRECT. Here we have the same element (water) in perfect balance: it evaporates, and then returns to the same region as rain (water) or snow (frozen water).