RC Guide p. 116 - Turtles

[HeatherF897]

Hi again! I had a question about B3.

I used the lines "females breed only after reaching 15 to 20 years of age" and "...soft shells that will take five years to harden..." to mean "at least 15" + "5 years exactly" = "at least 20." And so I answered "no" because the inference is saying "more than two decades" and I've become very paranoid about not equating "at least" with "more than." In other words, 20 is not the same as more than 20.

Now that I've had some time to think about it, I've considered that there's a period of pregnancy after breeding so maybe it's more like 15 years + some months + 5 years = more than 20 (lol)... but I wanted to ask for a more general tip - if I'm confronted with this on the real LSAT, should I just be less rigid with my "at least" versus my "more than"?

Thank you!!!!

[Laura Damone]

Hi!

I actually agree with you. Unless we know for a fact that turtles get pregnant and carry the young after conception, we can't infer "more than 2 decades." This should really be phrased "at least 2 decades" if it's going to be a proper inference (especially because tortoises don't actually carry young - they lay eggs!)

Nice work! Keep doing what you're doing, and we'll make sure to clean this up for the 7th edition of the Strategy Guides!