Q10

[LSAT-Chang]

Where do we get (D)? Is it the part about "clean and cool the drill bit as it cuts into the rock"?? I had no idea where we had support for this. I could see that it has to be from passage A, since there is no mention of rocks in Passage B. But exactly from what part of passage A can we potentially support the idea that there are oil reserves within or beneath layers of rock.... I correctly chose (B) because I thought that was more "unsupported" than (D) -- but really had a hard time justifying (D).

[timmydoeslsat]

You are right that the support comes from Passage A. I would point to line 6 where it states that the drill bit drills cuts into the rock. We know that the drill is heading for oil, and it is going through rock to get there, so this is a supported choice.

[shirando21]

still can't bridge it between cuts into the rock and find oil within or beneath the rock.

No background knowledge of oil drilling. I think cuts into the rock is to investigate if there is oil. but how can we just say oil can be found there.

It is like you buy a piece of land because you believe there may be gold underneath. and you drill it to investigate. But maybe there's none in the area in your first a few attempts. you are trying to investigate if there's any gold beneath, that does not mean you actually can find gold there. sometimes you did not find gold, but you find diamond instead.

[bex]

still can't bridge it between cuts into the rock and find oil within or beneath the rock.

D isn't saying the oil is ALWAYS found under the rock, but that is where it could be found.

The first paragraph of Passage A (Q Stem says "supported by ONE or BOTH, so no backup from Passage B needed) indicates that they drill into rock, and then from there they can figure out is going on with the fluid that is there. (aka, oil reserves)

[amil91]

still can't bridge it between cuts into the rock and find oil within or beneath the rock.

No background knowledge of oil drilling. I think cuts into the rock is to investigate if there is oil. but how can we just say oil can be found there.

It is like you buy a piece of land because you believe there may be gold underneath. and you drill it to investigate. But maybe there's none in the area in your first a few attempts. you are trying to investigate if there's any gold beneath, that does not mean you actually can find gold there. sometimes you did not find gold, but you find diamond instead.

The answer choice says oil 'can be found.' If they were drilling purely for investigatory reasons, I don't think they would drill somewhere, in this case through rocks, if oil could not be found there.

[ohthatpatrick]

Good questions/responses!

Here's a complete write-up:

(A) supported by lines 7-9
(B) this should look attractive as a bad Inference since it uses the extreme words "requires" and "all". This topic is only partly referenced in psg A, which seemingly contradicts this. Lines 29-30 in particular seem to go against this answer.
(C) supported by 16-19
(D) supported by 5-6
(E) supported by 47-48

Remember that 'supported' does mean 'proven'. The line references provide support for the four wrong answer choices. By contrast we have no support, if not contradictory support, for (B).