Q17

[aidanmenzul]

Is it just me or am I the only one who thought the passages equivocated with the term "industrial biotechnology". I'm not scientist, isn't that different from "biotechnology industry" with the former referring to nanotech etc?

I see that the passage mentions "new drugs and therapies", but still having trouble getting over that. I put A even though I didn't like it very much b/c the 3rd passage had the 3 paragraph which got into defining terms etc.

[aileenann]

Hi Aidan - I'll be glad to take a crack at your question.

First things first. Generally, I don't think the LSAT gets so picky that you need to worry about what if any difference there is between "industrial biotechnology" and "biotechnology industry." I am all for precision, but my first instinct would be to take these as semi-meaningless catch phrases only to be used to fill in for some generalized idea we can all imagine.

Let's go back and look at # 17. They are asking which thing both passages refer to. Basically we'll need to synthesize stuff going on in both of the passages, trying not to be either too broad and sweeping or too nitpicky. I admit it's a tough and fine line to follow. Here I'd say that every time I have done this question (and it's a number of times because I often cover this with my LSAT classes) I like best to get to answer choice (D) by process of elimination. In particular, I don't think there is any support for any of the others, while there is support for "industrial biotechnology" even if you don't see the exact phrase in both.

I'd rule out (A) because it's (I'd argue) a much more specific idea than biotech industries, and we really only see it in the first passage. I'd be curious what you'd use to support it in the second passage - maybe then we could chat a bit more about how to decide to go with (D) rather than (A).

Hope to hear from you soon.

[aidanmenzul]

Thanks... I understand. I think for comparative passages an effective strategy (at least for me) is to attack the questions for it at the end of Passage A. I notice it helps with questions like this, especially if its the last passage I'm doing and there's a limited amount of time left.