Q1 - Researcher: During the rainy season, bonobos

[Laura Damone]

Question Type:
Strengthen

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: The leaves are likely ingested for their medicinal properties. Premise: Bonobos swallow the leaves whole during the rainy season, and the leaves help eliminate gastrointestinal worms.

Answer Anticipation:
When the LSAT gives you a conclusion that is an explanation, you should always consider possible alternative explanations. For a Strenghten question, the correct answer might eliminate an alternative explanation. If, for example, an answer choice said that the leaves have no nutritional value, that would eliminate an alternative explanation (that they eat the leaves for sustenance) and thereby strengthen the conclusion (that they eat the leaves medicinally). We should also take note of the details in the premises. The leaves help the apes get rid of worms, but the premise only says they're eating them during the rainy season. A connection between the worms and the rainy season would also be a good anticipation, since it would help explain why the medicinal properties of the leaves weren't needed year-round.

Correct answer:
E

Answer choice analysis:
(A) So what if these leaves are the only leaves bonobos swallow whole? That doesn't tell us why they swallow them, so it doesn't strengthen this argument.

(B) Chimpanzees? No thanks. What do they have to do with anything? We need an answer that helps bridge the gap between what bonobos do and why bonobos do it.

(C) If these leaves are the most common ones in the class of "rough-leaved plants," does that make it any more likely that the bonobos eat them for their medicinal qualities? No way. Now, some folks might get tricked into thinking that this weakens the argument, but it doesn't do that either. These leaves being the most common in their class doesn't provide an alternative explanation for why bonobos eat them. Now, if we were told that these leaves were so common that they made up most of the plant life around the bonobos, that might provide an alternative explanation for why they eat them. But just being the most common in their class doesn't cut it.

(D) When the leaves are easiest to swallow doesn’t help us determine why bonobos swallow them.

(E) Here it is! The first premise tells us the bonobos eat the leaves in the rainy season. The second tells us that the leaves help eliminate intestinal worms. This answer helps those premises work together to support the conclusion by telling us that intestinal worms primarily effect bonobos during the rainy season.

Takeaway/Pattern:
On the LSAT, arguments tend to be strengthened in one of two ways: bridging gaps and ruling out alternatives. Stay flexible in your anticipations, and don't become so wedded to one type of strengthener that you fail to recognize the other.

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