#15 - Twenty years ago the Republic of Rosinia produced

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Assumption. The correct answer choice is (B)

This stimulus describes the plight of Rosinia, a country whose potato harvests have decreased significantly. The author blames the researchers, who have failed to develop higher-yielding strains of potatoes:

• Premise: The researchers have been concerned only with their own research.
  
  Conclusion: Therefore the researchers are to blame for the decreased harvests.

Since this stimulus is followed by an assumption question, we can apply the assumption negation technique: the correct answer choice, when negated, will weaken the argument presented in the stimulus.

Answer Choice (A): This cannot be an assumption of the author’s, because the conclusion in the stimulus is implicitly based on the notion that the researchers could have developed a higher-yielding strain.

Answer Choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. The author must presume that the currently available strains were unable to keep up their old performance. If they could have produced at their old levels, then it would look more like the farmers, or rain, or some other factor is to blame.

The only way that the researchers can be blamed for the decreased yield is to attribute the decrease to a lack of improvement to the potato strain.

To check our work, we can apply the assumption negation technique. The negated version of this answer choice is as follows:

Common strains of potatoes could have produced the yields last year that they once did.

If this is the case, then the researches cannot be blamed entirely for the decrease, so this must be the assumption on which the author’s argument relies.

Answer Choice (C): Part of the author’s argument is that the researchers were solely concerned with their research and as a result could not develop a better strain of potatoes. The assumption presented in this argument would actually weaken the author’s argument.

Answer Choice (D): This choice weakens the author’s argument, providing an alternate cause (statistical variation) which would make the researchers less blameworthy.

Answer Choice (E): This choice plays no role in the argument, so it cannot be an assumption on which the argument relies.

[GLMDYP]

Hi!
For this question, even though I got the right answer, I had a hard time foresee the right answer while reading the question stem. I cannot see any signs indicating a potential assumption for this question. Could you please lead me through the question stem when applying (B) to the question stem?
Thanks!

[David Boyle]

Hi!
For this question, even though I got the right answer, I had a hard time foresee the right answer while reading the question stem. I cannot see any signs indicating a potential assumption for this question. Could you please lead me through the question stem when applying (B) to the question stem?
Thanks!

Hello,

Lead you through the stimulus, you mean? Well, potato production has crashed, and the researchers are blamed for not finding new kinds of potatoes. Therefore, the assumption is that the old kinds of potatoes must be bad (or else, why would it be bad that there are no new kinds?); which is what answer B says, more or less.

David

[GLMDYP]

Thanks! But I'm still confused about "could not have produced the yields last year that they once did". Does it mean that the strain used to produce more? Or the strain had always produced such low quantity thus is a really bad strain?
Thanks!

[David Boyle]

Thanks! But I'm still confused about "could not have produced the yields last year that they once did". Does it mean that the strain used to produce more? Or the strain had always produced such low quantity thus is a really bad strain?
Thanks!

Hello,

Apparently it used to produce more: "Twenty years ago the Republic of Rosinia produced nearly 100 million tons of potatoes, but last year the harvest barely reached 60 million tons." So maybe it wasn't always a bad strain.

David

[lathlee]

Actually I see B) as very problematic answer especially using Powerscore's techniques.
Most, according to Dave and Powerscore definition of Most in percentage figures, 51-100% in LSAT world." NOW, answer choice b) states, strains of potatoes most commonly grown in Rosnia could not have produced the yields last year that they once did. "
Let's say this most commonly potatoes consists of 51%, which falls in the category of most or even 60%, which also falls in the category of most as well. (51 million or 60 million out of 100 million.Regardless of they are one kind or 3 kinds which I don't think it matters much in terms of numbers) if the most commonly grown potatoes are failed to produce the load they use to and decrease the production volume to 51 million last year produced to 50 million this year produced/ 60 million last year produced to 59 million this year produced, which btw all possible scenario according to the Question stem and B) (and also the reason that I didn't choose B as the final correct answer), and let's say (this is possible since the LSAT authors didn't say anything about the decreasing volume) , so un-most commonly produced now produces from 49 m to 9 m or 40 m to 1m, isn't un-most commonly produced are the ones to blame rather than mostly common?
as in most commonly potatoes unable to produce their usual level or not, the scenario I suggest that can support the assumption required regardless of what happens to most common sort or not?
Therefore, render the answer choice b as too much problem to be chosen as the correct answer or incorrect answer choice?

[lathlee]

hi. can i plz get an answer for this when you have time; curiosity is killing me. haha

[lathlee]

Hi. Can I plz get the answer for this. HAHA THX.

[lathlee]

Can I plz get an answer for this haha. I had waited really long time for this and curiosity is killing me.

[Adam Tyson]

Lathlee, your focus on "most" here is misplaced. This use of "most" has nothing to do with the numbers of potatoes, and this answer is not about numerical analysis at all. Instead, the use of the term "most commonly" should be thought of as if the author had said "the usual potatoes" or "the regular potatoes" or "the typical potatoes". That's what "most commonly grown" means, and it is in that answer in order to contrast it with the idea of "new higher-yielding strains of potatoes". Undeveloped new strains cannot be the typical potatoes, because they haven't been developed and therefore don't exist yet. So, analyze this argument not with numbers, but with the comparison of "new strains" vs "the normal old strains".

The author is arguing that a lack of new strains is to blame for the decreased yield. That means he must assume that the old strains - the ones most commonly grown - couldn't get the job done. As discussed in our official explanation at the top of this thread, the effect of the negation technique on this answer tell us that the old strains could have produced a higher yield like they used to. If that's true, we don't need new strains, but only need to fix whatever went wrong with the old ones. That ruins the author's argument that the researchers who didn't develop new strains are to blame. Instead, blame whatever was lowering the yield of the old strains.

Don't go overboard and dive so deeply into the numbers where, as here, they are not the real issue. The real issue is blaming the decrease on the lack of new strains rather than on whatever is lowering the yields of the old ones.

One last thing, and that is a reminder that your task is always to find the best answer of the bunch. It need not be perfect in your eyes! None of the other answer choices here is any better than answer B, so instead of focusing on what makes B imperfect, look for what makes it better than the others. The negation technique should help you with that.

Good luck, keep pounding!