LSAT 91, Logical Reasoning I, Q19, LSATHacks

LR Question 19 Explanation, by LSATHacks

QUESTION TEXT: For there to be a thriving population of turtles in a pond…

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption

CONCLUSION: There must not be a thriving turtle population at Wallakim Pond.

REASONING: For turtle populations to thrive, the conditions must be beneficial. Wallakim Pond is acidic, unlike Sosachi Pond.

ANALYSIS: For Necessary Assumption questions, we want to fill in the blank. We want to show that Wallakim Pond does not have a thriving turtle pond. This must mean the conditions aren’t beneficial. But all we know about Wallakim Pond is that it is acidic.

Wallakim Pond ➞  acidic ➞ not beneficial ➞ not thriving

The correct answer will probably tell us that acidic water is not beneficial to turtles.

___________

1. This is the opposite of what we need. It doesn’t actually tell us anything about whether acidic water is beneficial or not.
2. This tells us that acidity is important, but doesn’t tell us whether it helps or hurts.
3. This tells us that Sosachi is better for turtles than Wallakim, but we don’t know that it’s because Wallakim is acidic. There could be another factor.
4. This sounds good, but doesn’t actually complete the argument. We need to show that Wallakim doesn’t have a thriving turtle population, and this answer just tells us a scenario where it does.
5. CORRECT. This answer tells us that acidic Ponds are not beneficial. This perfectly completes the argument and shows that because Wallakim Pond is acidic, conditions are not beneficial and therefore there must not be a thriving turtle population.

Recap: The question begins with “For there to be a thriving population of turtles in a pond”. It is a Sufficient Assumption question. Learn how to master LSAT Sufficient questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.

Hi, I'm Graeme Blake

Founder of LSAThacks; I scored a 177 on the LSAT.

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