#14 - When soil is plowed in the spring, pigweed seeds that

[elewis10]

I am having trouble understanding why answer D is wrong. Why can we not conclude that the redepositing is necessary for germination? Is the redepositing not necessary? Can the prolonged darkness followed by exposure to sunlight cause germination without the redepositing? What am I missing?

Thanks very much.

[Adam Tyson]

We cannot conclude that redepositing is necessary, elewis10, because the stimulus never says that it is. It says the prolonged darkness, followed by exposure to sunlight, is required. It says the seeds ARE redeposited, but it never says that MUST BE redeposited. Rely on the text of the stimulus, and don't bring in any additional assumptions not supported by the text (other than very limited common sense info, like the fact that the sun shines during the day and doesn't shine during the night).

Since the stimulus never tells us that redepositing is necessary, we should not assume that it is. That's the trap of that answer - don't fall for it!

[deck1134]

Hello,

I feel like a complete idiot about this question. When I read it, it seemed like all that was required for germination was "brief exposure" to sunlight. The question says that "without the prolonged darkness followed by exposure to sunlight, the seeds do not germinate."

However, why do the seeds require exposure immediately? If they were plowed at night, wouldn't that just "add" additional darkness until daylight, when they would get exposure anyway? Are we allowed to assume that?

I got the other questions correct, but this one threw me. I chose answer "B" because it seemed like "no exposure" would result in fewer growth than "delayed exposure" at night.

Am I thinking about this the wrong way? I am genuinely not sure what else I can do to reframe this.

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi, Deck,

Not at all. Very good question. The key is to see what other information the stimulus provides about "plowing." In the first sentence, we learn that plowing first (1) churns the seeds up to the surface and second (2) redeposits the seeds right beneath the surface. In other words, when the plowing process is finished the seeds are once again beneath the surface.

This is where we find evidence for answer choice (A). Granted that the fields are plowed exclusively at night, it stands to reason that these pigweed seeds will by and large be below the surface again, not exposed to sunlight even when the daytime comes.

For answer choice (B) the problem is we have no distinction between no plowing or only night plowing. While the statement in (B) could be true (I would surmise that in real life it likely is true!), we do not have any evidence addressing this situation in the stimulus. Thus, (B) cannot be correct.

Does this help? Please follow up with further questions.

[BrandiWimbush]

I get why the reasoning is correct, but could someone help me better understand when we should be applying a "broad" knowledge and when we shouldn't. I didn't select the correct answer because I assumed the seeds didn't have to become plants....I figured seeds could become a lot of different things (like fruits, vegetables, etc.) and thought this was "new information".

[Brook Miscoski]

Brandi,

Look at the instructions at the top of an LSAT logical reasoning section. They state: "You should not make assumptions that are by commonsense standards implausible, superfluous, or incompatible with the passage." What this means is that the LSAT test writers expect you to bring some knowledge to the test. Exactly what, they aren't gonna say.

But a good rule of thumb is to distinguish between general knowledge and special knowledge. You won't need to be a botanist to answer an LSAT question (special knowledge), but you are expected to know that when seeds germinate they become plants (general knowledge). Therefore, it is okay for you to use the general knowledge that seeds grow into plants (fruits and vegetables are things that come from plants).

[drcopeland]

We cannot conclude that redepositing is necessary....

Thank you so much for clarifying this about answer choice D!!! I was torn between A and D and ended up choosing D because it mentioned being redeposited, something that was stated as having been done at the beginning of the stimulus and my brain just rolled that into the necessary part without me thinking about it really. Seeing my mistake really helps in avoiding it, thanks again!

Danielle

[jennyli0804]

Is this one of the few Must Be True questions that contains a conclusion? Thank you.

[Adam Tyson]

I see no conclusion in this stimulus, jennyli0804, just a series of statements of fact. For there to be a conclusion present, there would have to be one statement that allegedly follows from the others - a "therefore" type of statement, even if it doesn't have a clear indicator word like that.

None of the statements here appears to be based on, or follow from, the others. The first sentence tells us what happens in the spring when fields are plowed. The second tells us an effect of plowing. The third tells us that the cause is necessary for the effect to occur. That last statement isn't given as a "therefore", supposedly following from the first two statements, but just as another fact in a list of facts. It reads more like a lecture than an argument.

[destiny.ram]

Hello, I marked A, B, C as losers because I thought "prolonged" meant months/an entire season as the stimulus mentions. A, B, C only mention days/nights. How can I avoid making this mistake again while still paying attention to all the details in the stimulus? I did not want to generalize and assume the same conditions could be met in shorter time periods, but it seems like that was what I should have done.