LSAT 158 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q11

LR Question 11 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: There is evidence that a certain ancient society burned…

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: It is likely that the society was still a hunter-gatherer society.

REASONING: The society burned large areas of land, which some suggest could have been to clear ground for farming. But there is little evidence that they cultivated anything after the fires.

ANALYSIS: The argument dismisses one explanation for the fires (clearing land for farms) and then says that, because the fires weren’t for farming, they were probably a hunter-gatherer society.

There are 2 issues with this, as I can tell:

1. The author assumes it’s a hunter-gatherer society only because one sign of farming isn’t present. It might not necessarily be enough to draw that conclusion.
2. If the fire wasn’t about farming, why were they burning it down?

The correct answer will probably address one of these two things.

___________

1. This does not strengthen the argument. It leads us to wonder, if this society is using fire then have they maybe developed agriculture after all?
2. This is a use for fire, but these fires wouldn’t need to be “large areas”.
3. This provides a reason for farming societies to use fires, but we want to show that this society wasn’t a farming society.
4. CORRECT. This provides a reason for the fires to be used by hunter-gatherer societies. If they didn’t sue it for farming, it was possibly to move animals.
5. We already know they probably weren’t using the fires to cultivate land – this answer doesn’t tell us anything new.

Recap: The question begins with “There is evidence that a certain ancient society burned”. It is a Strengthen question. Learn how to master LSAT Strengthen questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.