#24 - Must Be True, Purpose

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=14217)

The correct answer choice is (E)

The author points out this common belief about slow and gradual restoration to lead into the
introduction of the Netherlands study (which arose in an effort to speed up such restoration).

Answer choice (A): The Netherlands study was done as a reaction to this fact, not as an effort to
discredit it.

Answer choice (B): The gradual restoration is not cited as a justification used by proponents of
intense agricultural production, so this choice is inaccurate and should be ruled out of contention.

Answer choice (C): The fact referenced was not presented in an effort to prove that effects of
agricultural overproduction are not as bad as people think, but to describe the circumstances that led
to the study in the Netherlands.

Answer choice (D): The gradual natural restoration of overfarmed land is not the most common
perception of why overproduction is problematic.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice; the discussion of gradual restoration
describe the circumstances that led to the study conducted in the Netherlands.

[Dancingbambarina]

D makes sense that it's incorrect, but how do we know this is factually incorrect?

[Adam Tyson]

We don't need to know whether it's factually correct or not, Dancing. We just need to know that this answer doesn't accurately describe why that statement is in the passage.

But D makes zero sense. It sounds like a contradiction. Try putting the claim and the answer together and you'll see why:

"Damaged ecological systems will restore themselves very gradually over time, and that's why agricultural overproduction is problematic."

Huh? If it's true that these systems will restore themselves, then what's the problem with overproduction? No worries, the systems will bounce back in time!

But like I said, it doesn't matter whether it makes sense or not. What matters is why the author said it, and this author said it to set the stage for the next claim , that folks in the Netherlands are studying ways to speed the process up.