Passage Discussion

[LSAT-Chang]

Does anyone want to provide feedback on my scale?

Side A -- wine does not have healthful benefits (most scientists)

Side B -- wine has healthful benefits (author, researchers)

[zee.brad]

Does anyone want to provide feedback on my scale?

Side A -- wine does not have healthful benefits (most scientists)

Side B -- wine has healthful benefits (author, researchers)

I don' think most scientists are talking about wine doesn't have healthful benefits, they just overlooked it by only studying the bad effects (excessive intake of alcohol)

[ohthatpatrick]

I agree with the previous poster that we couldn't actually say that most scientists have concluded that wine does not have healthy properties. We just know that they have assumed "the only active ingredient is alcohol", they "make no distinction among wine, beer, and spirits", and they "only study the excessive or abusive intake of these beverages".

Nonetheless, I think the original scale is good enough for the sake of a rough sense of what the author/passage is here to suggest vs. what the counterpoint would be.

If we want to refine the wording of the scale a bit to try to find a dichotomy that's more in line with the exact text, maybe we could say:

Side A: wine is just like other alcoholic beverages; it's only active ingredient is alcohol and it should be studied only for excessive/abusive intake

Side B: wine is distinct from other alcoholic beverages; it may have other active ingredients and should possibly be studied for beneficial effects of intake as well

[leroyjenkins]

Isn't the author's main point really about grapes being the the reason for wine's apparent healthful effects?

He clearly poses a hypothetical question at the end of paragraph 2 which he seems to answer in paragraph 3.

And then, at the end of paragraph 3, he speculates that grapes may be the reason (in lines 55-60):

"This finding may be the first step in confirming speculation that the potentially healthful effects of moderate wine intake may derive from the concentration of certain natural compounds found in grapes and not present in other alcoholic beverage."

So big question at the end of para 2, and speculation at the end of para 3 which serves as an answer to that question.

If we miss that as the main point (and settle for wine is like other alcohol vs. wine is distinct), it is much harder to answer the questions correctly (the correct answer to main point Q mentions grapes, as do 2 others).

[ohthatpatrick]

I don't disagree that the relationship of wine to grapes is an important one, but we were just talking about a very generic scale.

One side of my scale was
"Side B: wine is distinct from other alcoholic beverages; it may have other active ingredients and should possibly be studied for beneficial effects of intake as well"

How is it distinct? It comes from grapes. What other active ingredients? Grape compounds.

So the scale still had containers to insert the specific detail of grapes.

To put grapes ON the scale means that someone in the passage took a contrary opinion towards grapes. That's a bit of a stretch.

But really, I'm not disagreeing. This is just the silly game of words you can get into when you're trying to come up with "the perfect scale". The scale is just an approximation - a useful tool for organizing info in the passage. There's no one correct version of it, so if you have a suggestion for how to word it, using 'grapes', please suggest one.

I honestly don't really try to impose a scale on a passage like this. Obviously, the author is trying to clarify a misconception or point to a deficiency in research, so we could define an opposing side based on the misconception or the overlooked research opportunity, but it's not like that side of the scale gets any talking points.

It's MOST important that we know what missing idea the author is trying to supply to remedy the misconception or address the deficiency, and in this passage that idea is clearly "wine is special among alcoholic drinks because its grape compounds do some cool stuff for heart health".

This discussion is making me really want some red wine.