Q17 - Herbalist: While standard antibiotics typically

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Question Type:
Determine the Function

Stimulus Breakdown:
The argument concludes that herbal remedies are more likely to their effectiveness against new, resistent strains of bacteria than are standard antibiotics. This is because for a strain of bacteria, developing resistence to an herbal antibacterial remedy is like a cook's difficulty in trying to prepare a meal that pleases many guests, a task that is more difficult than pleasing a single guest.

Answer Anticipation:
We're asked to identify the partner of a standard antibiotic in the analogy of the cook preparing a meal for many guests. Since a standard antibiotic would be easier to develop resistence to, in the analogy, the standard antibiotic would be the task that is simpler of the two (i.e. preparing a meal for a single guest).

Correct Answer:
(A)

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) is correct. This is the easier of the two tasks for the cook, just like a single guest is the easier of the two tasks for a strain of bacteria.

(B) represents the harder of the two tasks, which woudl be the herbal antibacterial remedy.

(C) represents the task of developing resistence to an antibacterial remedy.

(D) represents the strain of bacteria in the analogy.

(E) is out of scope. This would be the means of accomplishing the task, but we're not given information about how bacteria develop resistence.

Takeaway/Pattern: Reasoning: Comparison

#officialexplanation

[LSAT-Chang]

Can someone go over this problem for me please?
I had no clue how to approach this...

[maryadkins]

Weird question, huh? The stimulus compares cooking to bacteria and remedies. We're told:

Standard antibiotics: one ingredient.

Herbal remedies: several ingredients.

Herbal remedies, it tells us, are better at fighting bacteria because in order to win against the remedy, the bacteria would have to be resistant to several ingredients, not just one. The analogy is: a cook (the bacteria) finds it more difficult to cater to dozens of people's preferences (herbal remedies) as opposed to just a single guest (the standard antibiotic). (A) is correct.

[Joymarie.virga]

Why is the answer not (c) the pleasure experienced by a single guest. If it is difficult for the cook to cater to the pleasure of many guest as it is difficult for a bacteria to fight off many ingedients, then it is easier to cater to a single guest's pleasure.

[dandrew]

Yes, I second the above post--why A instead of C? Thank you.

[sumukh09]

A instead of C because C is about "pleasure" which doesn't represent anything in the analogy in the stim. It's not about the amount of "pleasure" that the guests receive, but rather the amount of people that the cook has to please. Similarly, a bacteria (cook) finds a tougher time trying to fight off several remedies (herbal remedies) rather than just one (standard antibiotic).

[maryadkins]

A instead of C because C is about "pleasure" which doesn't represent anything in the analogy in the stim. It's not about the amount of "pleasure" that the guests receive, but rather the amount of people that the cook has to please. Similarly, a bacteria (cook) finds a tougher time trying to fight off several remedies (herbal remedies) rather than just one (standard antibiotic).

Good question, guys! But this explanation is correct. The pleasure is analogous to the effectiveness of the medicine, not to the antibiotic.

As for the other choices:

(B) is the opposite of what we want.
(D) is off because the cook isn't the one being affected. We're talking about the guests.
(E) like (D), ingredients are on the table. The guests are the ones being compared.