#11 - Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=10960)

The correct answer choice is (D)

This question asks us to determine a statement with which both authors would agree. Use the discussion of Passage Similarities above to arrive at a suitable prephrase, and keep in mind that the correct answer choice must contain a statement with which both authors would agree.

Answer choice (A): The fact that honeybees sometimes ignore the foragers’ instructions is described only in Passage B, not Passage A. Since the other author’s opinion is unknown, this answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (B): Both authors agree that Wenner and Esch were mistaken in their belief that odor plays a role in honeybee communication.

Answer choice (C): The author of Passage A makes no generalizations pertaining to most animal species; she focuses exclusively on honeybee communication.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice. In lines 7-11, the author of Passage A indicates that von Frisch discovered a pattern in the honeybee dance, deciphered it, and deduced the location of the food source the bee had discovered. This discovery was foundational to subsequent studies, and can easily be described as “instrumental.” Likewise, in lines 49-50, the author of Passage B refers to von Frisch as “the first to crack the code of the honeybee’s dance,” leaving no doubt that his work was instrumental to future research.

Answer choice (E): Neither passage describes foraging as a learned behavior, let alone one that inexperienced honeybees learn from more experienced ones. This answer choice falls entirely outside the scope of both passages.

[jmramon]

So I see why it was wrong of me to choose C. However, I was tempted to choose D but didn’t because of its wording. D says the work of Von Frisch was instrumental in specifically in “answering questions about how honeybees communicate” whereas the stimulus said that although Von Frisch discovered that the honeybees’ dance was used to communicate where food was, “questions still remained about the precise mechanism used to transmit that information”. This shadow of doubt in the stimulus made me think it was too strong to say he answered fundamental questions about how honeybees communicate. Is the operative word here that makes D correct “instrumental,” rather than “the sole reason”? Thanks for the help!

[Claire Horan]

Hi jmramon,

Answer choice (D) states that Von Frisch was helpful in answering basic questions about how bees communicate.

"Fundamental" means "basic," "foundational," or "central." Answering fundamental questions does not mean answering every question or even every important question. So failing to determine the precise mechanism would probably not be a fundamental question. Even if it were, answer choice (D) does not say that Frisch was instrumental in answering all fundamental questions about how bees communicate.

Additionally, as you point out, the word "instrumental" is not an extreme word. It means "contributory," "helpful," or "useful." This answer choice does not require Von Frisch to be the most instrumental, just instrumental.

I hope this helps!