#2 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=14220)

SR, Must—Purpose. The correct answer choice is (E)

This question refers to the author’s mention of “maintenance burns,” which are the fires that the
author suggests be allowed or caused to occur in order to minimize the risk of large-scale fires.

Answer choice (A): This incorrect answer was tempting for many test-takers, because the
maintenance burns would be intended for similar purposes, as the periodic fires in ancient Ponderosa
forests renewed and protected the older trees and helped to maintain the stability of the forests. Since
the maintenance burns that the author refers to are clearly the periodic fires that the author suggests
for the future, however, this choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (B): The maintenance burns the author discusses would be intended in part to protect
the mature trees, not reduce their population, so this choice fails the Fact Test and should be ruled
out of contention.

Answer choice (C): The maintenance burns refer to the fires that would be periodically set or
allowed to start, in the interest of maintaining forests going forward. But this is not the same as fires
that are likely to occur today—with the buildup of fuel that has taken place over the years, the type
of fire likely to take place today could be much larger than the maintenance burns referenced by the
author.

Answer choice (D): Fires used to occur at regular intervals of between 5 and 25 years, as discussed
in the first paragraph; the author laments the fact that many forests have gone 50 years without the
occurrence of a fire—a state of affairs made possible by modern firefighting technology which, the
author believes, has become too effective in many cases.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. As discussed above, the mention of
maintenance burns refers to the small scale fires which reduce the number of smaller trees which
supply potential fuel that could otherwise allow for larger scale fires.

[PB410]

I generally have trouble with these line and term specific questions. I find myself debating between two answer choices, and often have trouble knowing how broad of a context I am allowed to refer to when finding the correct answer. For example, "maintenance burns" is located in line 55, "Once fuels are reduced by these fires, maintenance burns at 15-20 year intervals will be needed." So there are the preceding "these fires", which are made up of intentional lighting(unnatural) and allowing fires set by lightning(natural). "These fires" are a part of a larger plan consisting of selective harvesting and prescribed fires. So I can see "these fires" as naturally or intentionally set fires that are allowed to burn to eliminate fuel. But now we are at the part where I am not sure what maintenance burns refer to. Do they refer to the natural fires used in the Ponderosa example, occurring 5-25 years? I interpreted the lines 50-55 as the author's plan to get the forest to low fuel levels through intentional and natural fires. Once there is a return to those levels, then the maintenance burns would occur like the fires in the Ponderosa example. That is why I chose A ultimately, "low-intensity fires that regularly occurred in ancient forests".

[Adam Tyson]

It sounds to me like you started off with exactly the right idea, PB410. You went back to the text, read the line in question, and read a little before and around it to get context. But what I think might be missing is the next step, which is prephrasing. Did you then come up with your own answer, without looking at the answer choices? Did you say to yourself "in these lines, the author means XXX"? That's the crucial step that will help you to avoid wrong answers like A and select right answers like E with confidence and speed.

In this case, a good prephrase might have been "the author means the kind of fires that will reduce the risk of extensive damage, like the ones described as part of a policy of prescribed fire management." An important context clue would be the word "maintenance," which you might interpret to mean "we need to keep doing that in order to remain in good condition."

While those low intensity fires referenced in answer A would qualify as maintenance burns, the author meant more than just the type of fire, but the purpose of those fires, which was maintenance. Answer E better captures the broad scope of fires that accomplish that purpose; answer A only deals with one of those sorts of fires.

Prephrase as much as you can, PB410! That will make a big difference in whether you get stuck between two attractive answers or whether you quickly, confidently, and accurately select one and move on to the next.

[PB410]

Thanks. Adam.
Your reasoning about the role of "maintenance" makes sense. It implies continued effort through physical means. I struggle with prephrasing in general. In Logical Reasoning, I take my time before looking through the answer choices, but with Reading Comprehension, I think I get overwhelmed with the amount of information from the passage and the tasks the questions require, along with the time constraints. The questions have gotten much more difficult from the earlier Reading Comprehensions. The Prephrasing skill is something I'm trying to figure out. I'll be able to recognize the conclusion, and support, and a concept like correlation to cause and effect, and then miss the correct answer, especially in strengthen and weaken. I'm often way off with assumption questions. Justify the conclusion and conditional reasoning work better for me. Flaw in reasoning used to be reliable, but the tests from 60 and on uses common flaw patterns as traps that I fall for.

[MichaelYan]

It sounds to me like you started off with exactly the right idea, PB410. You went back to the text, read the line in question, and read a little before and around it to get context. But what I think might be missing is the next step, which is prephrasing. Did you then come up with your own answer, without looking at the answer choices? Did you say to yourself "in these lines, the author means XXX"? That's the crucial step that will help you to avoid wrong answers like A and select right answers like E with confidence and speed.

In this case, a good prephrase might have been "the author means the kind of fires that will reduce the risk of extensive damage, like the ones described as part of a policy of prescribed fire management." An important context clue would be the word "maintenance," which you might interpret to mean "we need to keep doing that in order to remain in good condition."

While those low intensity fires referenced in answer A would qualify as maintenance burns, the author meant more than just the type of fire, but the purpose of those fires, which was maintenance. Answer E better captures the broad scope of fires that accomplish that purpose; answer A only deals with one of those sorts of fires.

Prephrase as much as you can, PB410! That will make a big difference in whether you get stuck between two attractive answers or whether you quickly, confidently, and accurately select one and move on to the next.

Hi, as I was doing this question my thoughts on A is exactly like how you laid it out, which is that while A does fall into the classification of maintenance burn, the author meant more than the fires in the ancient forest when he mentioned this term. I kept A as a contender anyways as I moved on to read the rest of the choices, and after eliminating B C and D, I also immediately eliminated E when I read it, b/c it says the purpose of the fire is to eliminate fuel, whereas in line 10-12, the author clearly said that the fire "maintained a low level of fuel", and I crossed out E as an exaggerating answer right away, which left me with no choice but A which is at least partly reasonable.

Can you please explain this part?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Michael,

It seems to me like you are reading the word "all" into answer choice (E) here. It's true that the fires aren't meant to eliminate all the fuel, but answer choice (E) doesn't say that. It says that the fires are allowed to burn to eliminate fuel. That's true---the fires serve the function of keeping the fuel from getting too massive. They eliminate some of the fuel to protect the forest. You can also think of eliminate as being used similar to the word "destroy." The fire is destroying the fuel that would otherwise build up too much.

Hope that helps!
Rachael