#6 - The distance that animals travel each day and the size

[Steve Stein]

Hi Ellen,

Thanks for your response--strictly speaking, this is not really conditional reasoning; distance and group size do correlate with diet. And diet is affected by the shape of teeth and face--this is a fact--it is not a necessary condition (in other words, we couldn't say "distance and group size correlate with diet, only if diet depends on the shape of teeth and face").

I would be hesitant to use arrows here, because in this fairly unique case we are dealing with correlations. Distance and group size correlate with diet, and diet correlates with shape of face and teeth. Therefore, as answer choice E provides, information about shape of face and teeth can provide likelihoods about whether an animal lived in herds.

I hope that's helpful--please let me know whether this is clear--thanks!

~Steve

[ellenb]

It makes more sense now

Thanks a lot!

[Blueballoon5%]

Hi! I was wondering if someone could help me with the answer key explanation for this question. The answer key states, "A correct reading of the stimulus indicates that in the year 1991, Country Q cut into its reserves, so that means more coal was consumed than was produced in 1991." What does "cut into its reserves" mean? (Sorry, English is not my first language!). Thanks!

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Blue,

Thanks for the question! Two things might help here:

1. "cut into its reserves" means to use up some of those reserves. Another analogous phrasing would be "dip into it's reserves."

2. There's a longer discussion of this problem over at lsat/viewtopic.php?f=647&t=6246. The initial explanation is there, but then many followup question and answers as well. You might find it helpful!

Thanks!

[Blueballoon5%]

Thanks Dave! Helped a lot, and the link was informative too!

[ericsilvagomez]

Hi,

Compared to a lot of the MBT LR questions I have seen so far, this question contains several answer choices that are not all that relevant to the stimulus information. My confusion with the correct answer choice is that I did not know "herd" refers to a group of animals. I thought it was a particular type of animal. What also threw me off is when it mentioned the word "extinct" because there is mention of diet and animals' teeth and faces, but not extinction.

[srusty]

Hi,

Compared to a lot of the MBT LR questions I have seen so far, this question contains several answer choices that are not all that relevant to the stimulus information. My confusion with the correct answer choice is that I did not know "herd" refers to a group of animals. I thought it was a particular type of animal. What also threw me off is when it mentioned the word "extinct" because there is mention of diet and animals' teeth and faces, but not extinction.

Hi Eric,

Absolutely! The stimulus tells us that diet tells us about traveling distance and herd size, and size and shapes of teeth and faces tell us about diet. Answer choice (E) is the most strongly supported because, as the stimulus states, we could glean information about herd behavior from an extinct animal's fossils.

Although in this case, "extinct" animals aren't mentioned explicitly in the stimulus, we can make the inference for answer choice (E) that we could draw the same information from an extinct animals teeth and face remains, even if we cannot observe the extinct animal.

Also, it is definitely harder to answer a question when there is unfamiliarity with a word - totally get it. I'd suggest creating a list of words you come across in your studying that you are unfamiliar with or want to strengthen your understanding of. Of course, it will never be a fully comprehensive list of all of the vocab, but it's a great place to start and keep track of words you want to brush up on.

Hope this helps!