Q11

[chocolatebunny]

I picked C based on lines 17-19 and 21-25. Why is A the right answer?

[ohthatpatrick]

This is a pretty obnoxious question, because they clearly want us to pick (C). I mean, the whole passage is about the tension between cytologists and biochemists.

In fact, that's what made me think (C) had to be a trap answer. Why would LSAT make anything that easy?

I'm not sure how 17-19 provides any support for (C). It only talks about cytologists (cell biologists). And I'm not sure how 'intricate cell architecture' relates to protoplasm. I guess 'architecture' relates to 'structural nature' of protoplasm.

But again, since 17-19 is only about cytologists, this would be good support for (A), not (C).

Even though correct answers are often supported by lines OTHER than the ones cited in the question stem, in this case, I think 25-29 is all we need to consider.

That sentence says that "they [biochemists] stood apart from the debate then raging" concerning protoplasm.

The following sentence mentions that biochemists were really interested in something else.

I rephrased that as, "oh, biochemists didn't wanna get involved in the debate over the structure of protoplasm". So that means that the debate must have just been among cytologists.

When you see the "Also" at the start of line 25, you know that you're about to read a sentence that is a continuation of the previous sentence.

The previous sentence, starting at 21, says "Biochemists, on the other hand". So both of those sentences are intended to show a way in which biochemists were different from cytologists.

In the case of 25-29, it's not that biochemists had a different opinion about protoplasm structure, it's that biochemists "stood apart from the debate", as in, they didn't even get involved.

Hope this helps.