#9 - Some paleontologists have suggested that Apatosaurus

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Main Point. The correct answer choice is (C)

Your task in this Main Point question is to select the answer choice that best restates the conclusion
in the stimulus. Reordered for clarity, the argument proceeds:

Premise: experiments with modern bones show how much strain they can withstand
before breaking

Premise: by taking into account the diameter and density of Apatosaurus leg bones, it is
possible to calculate that those bones could not have withstood the strains of
galloping.
Sub Conclusion: thus, galloping would probably have broken the legs of Apatosaurus, a huge
dinosaur

Conclusion: thus, it is unlikely that Apatosaurus was able to gallop

The correct answer choice in this Main Point question will restate the conclusion that it is unlikely
that Apatosaurus was able to gallop. The incorrect answers will provide information not supported
by the stimulus, or information that while consistent with the stimulus is a restatement of some part
of the argument other than the conclusion.

Answer choice (A): This choice restates an intermediate or subsidiary conclusion of the argument.

Answer choice (B): This choice restates a premise.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice. This choice closely restates the argument’s
conclusion.

Answer choice (D): While the logic of this conditional statement is consistent with the argument, it
is not the argument’s conclusion.

Answer choice (E): While it seems likely that this choice presents accurate information, it is not
supported by the stimulus and, even if it were, is not a restatement of the conclusion.

[LustingFor!L]

I approached this as a main point question. I narrowed it down to A and C. Ultimately I chose C, because it captured the entire stimulus. Did I correctly identify this question type?

[Adam Tyson]

You sure did, Lusting, and here's a tip that will help you with a lot of Main Point questions like this one: be on the lookout for "some people say" arguments, because the main point of them is usually some variant of "those people are wrong." Here, "some paleontologists have suggested" is equivalent to "some people say", and "This, however, is unlikely" is their way of saying "but they're wrong." The rest of the argument is all about why those folks are wrong - the premises. This structure ("Some people say X, but they are wrong, and here's why") is a classic on the LSAT, and once you become attuned to it you will find these questions to be a walk in the park. Some RC passages are also built on essentially the same structure, by the way, and you can get their Main Point the same way, albeit typically with a lot more words in the right answer.

Good job!

[okjoannawow]

I don't understand why D is incorrect. I thought it was the answer because is summarized all of the main points hit in the argument. I definitely see why C was correct overall; it was the closest to the conclusion of the argument. But I feel like D did the same thing.

[Dave Killoran]

I don't understand why D is incorrect. I thought it was the answer because is summarized all of the main points hit in the argument. I definitely see why C was correct overall; it was the closest to the conclusion of the argument. But I feel like D did the same thing.

Hi Joanna,

Thanks for the question! Note how the question stem says "expresses the conclusion drawn by the argument as a whole." So, (D) is close to what the author is saying, but it forgets that the point the author was making was used in service of disproving the overall point of the paleontologists. As in, why did the author say all that? to disprove the paleontologists.

Consider for a moment what you would walk away thinking about this argument if you heard it: would it be that the apatosaurus can't gallop, or that the paleontologists are wrong? If you say just the former, then you've missed the framing statement that opens the stimulus. If you say the latter, then (D) is incomplete. And if you said "both," then (D) again can't be the correct answer since it's missing a piece

The broad rule (which also applies to RC) is that you have to consider the setup context (if any) provided by an author.

Side note: a fantastic example of this is the Waterbugs passage from the October 1991 LSAT. People talk about it being all about waterbugs because that's where the difficulty lies, but the opening paragraph shows that it's about adaptive responses (see #14). Sorry to go far back in history for this example, but it's always been the defining example of this.

Thanks!

[goingslow]

Hi there! Is it fair to say that (D) and (E) are assumptions of the argument?

Thank you!

[Adam Tyson]

I would say that D is an assumption of the argument, goingslow, but E is not because it is too strong. The author does have to assume that modern bones have enough similarity to Apatosaurus bones to be a useful comparison, but that doesn't mean they have to be "quite similar."

[goingslow]

Thank you so much, Adam!