#24 - Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Question Line Reference

The correct answer choice is (C)

The justification for the correct answer can be found on:

(lines 53-60)

The author’s argument is that grapes contain a certain natural compound that can help to prevent heart disease, so drinking wine made from other fruits would likely not have the same effect.

[yusrak]

Hi,

I referred to the last sentence to answer this question. Because the last sentence says, "...compounds found in grapes and not present in other alcoholic beverages" I was stuck between answer choice A and answer choice C. Since this a question in the prove family I reasoned that new information in the answers will be suspicious and I should get my information from what is given in the passage. I looked suspiciously at answer choice C since nothing in the passage talks about apples or plums. So I chose A instead.

Now that I write this out, I am re-evaluating answer choice A because it uses strong language (where it says "...should not attempt to study...") and usually answer choices with strong logical force are incorrect in prove family questions. Would that reasoning be correct? Is it ok to go for choices with new information if we are answering a question within the prove family?

Thanks in advance!
Yusra

[Adam Tyson]

Hi Yusra! Keep in mind that information that is covered by a broad statement, like "not present in other alcoholic beverages," may not be new information at all. If the healthful effect is from the grapes found in wine made from grapes, and that compound is not found in other alcoholic beverages, then it would not be new to say that it would not be in beer, or vodka, or sake, or apple wine, etc. "Other alcoholic beverages" is an umbrella that covers them all!

Another example: "Giant redwood trees are found in Northern California and nowhere else." If I accept this as true (it isn't, but don't worry about that right now), I can use this to prove that there are no giant redwoods in Connecticut, or in Russia, or in Tanzania. Those other places were not mentioned in my statement, but the absence of those trees in those places is NOT new information, because they are covered by "nowhere else."

A similar umbrella concept comes up sometimes when a stimulus or passage talks about "all animals" or "all mammals," and we can then draw conclusions about humans (because we are animals and we are mammals).

As to answer A, that is pretty strong, and that alone makes it a little suspect. But also, it conflicts with the author's general attitude, as well as the overall bias you will find in most science passages on the LSAT. This author, and the LSAT generally, LIKES science, and wants us to open our minds and study new things! The author criticized some scientists for making assumptions and only studying wine alcohol in narrow ways. So our author would probably be pleased to see scientists exploring beer and distilled spirits to see what other properties they might have, rather than agree that they shouldn't bother. Just because they don't have grapes doesn't mean they couldn't have other healthful properties! Let's do a study and find out!

Be careful about how strictly you apply that "new information" filter. Just because you didn't see a particular word in the passage or stimulus doesn't mean that the concept is totally new. If it fits under some broader concept, an "umbrella" concept, that WAS discussed, then it may not be so new after all!

[nzLSAT]

How can one eliminate answer choice B?

[Adam Tyson]

This line from the second paragraph should do that for you, nzLSAT:

While alcohol has been shown conclusively to have negative physiological effects—for example, alcohol strongly affects the body’s processing of lipids

The author would not question something that has been shown "conclusively"!

In this passage the author is not telling us that alcohol is not bad, but is instead showing us that while alcohol can be bad, certain alcoholic beverages (wine made from grapes) can have positive effects that may outweigh the negative effects from the alcohol they contain.