LSAT 153 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q7

RC Question 7 Explanation

DISCUSSION: When I first read the passage, I knew there were a bunch of facts in at the start of paragraph 1 that I hadn’t memorized. As I went through the answers on this question, I saw that section was relevant so I looked back and reread it, and it turned out to prove the correct answer.

You don’t need to memorize facts on LSAT passages. But, you should know where they are, and be aware of which parts of the passage you don’t remember well, as they may be the sections relevant for a question like this.

There was no way to know what was necessary on this question upfront, it’s a general question. But if a particular area seems relevant you should always go back and refresh yourself on it.

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1. Rubbish. The fact that plants can help cure human diseases doesn’t mean plants suffer from those diseases. It just means some compound in a plant helps cure something in humans. Effects can be indirect rather than direct.
    
   For example, some plant compounds help with heart disease. But that doesn’t mean plants have heart disease as a result! Plants don’t have hearts….
    
   I likewise have not heard of plants catching colds, measles, the flu, SARS-Cov-2, mumps, rubella, smallpox, chicken pox.
    
   On the flip side I haven’t heard of humans catching root rot, black spot, blight, blossom end rot, etc.
    
   It’s possible that some plant disease affects humans, but it isn’t something you can just assume is true. You’d need to find a place where the passage directly says that, and this passage doesn’t.
2. CORRECT. Lines 6-7 in the middle of paragraph 1 say that deforestation can lead to flooding, and can clog rivers with silt. Both of these would hurt water based transportation. Silt is when soil gets into rivers. You don’t need to know this word to answer the question though: you can merely reason that a clogged river might not be so good for boats. And flooding also isn’t good for transport.
3. The passage indicates this isn’t true. The end of paragraph 4 says that commercial plantations are only 3% of forests.
4. This isn’t in the passage. You probably think this is true from outside information, but we’re looking for something the passage says is true. All the passage said is that rainforests have some unique species. But there could be even more unique species in other types of forests: the passage didn’t say.
5. Nonsense. Lines 47-49 say that commercial plantations produce “wood and wood pulp”. Wood pulp is used to make things like paper. So this answer means that tropical people don’t use wood or paper, which is ridiculous. Brazilians don’t live in stone huts and they do write things down….Passage 2 – Indigenous Languages