Q19 - a recents study examined the daytime and nighttime act

[hashi_11]

The correct answer is B, but it's not something that stuck out to me right away. I had to really think about each answer choice, and I still didn't like B. When I reviewed this I got to the correct answer through process of elimination. It seems to be the only answer choice where the leave coverage matters in the winter that is a distinction between the two lemur populations. I was wondering if there are red flags in the other answer choices that would have made it quicker to eliminate them and arrive at B. I thought A and C were eliminated for similar reasons in that they didn't seem to effect one population over another. D seemed to actually not help explain the difference in activity. E seems to be irrelevant and possibly like D, another reason why the rainforest lemurs would be more active in general. Please advise if there is a quicker way to move through this question, and what the bigger take away/ generalization is from this question. I believe this is a strengthen but it seems like an explain. My guess as to a generalization is that it didn't seem that I could spot any red flags and I had to carefully assess the implications of each answer. Thanks.

[maryadkins]

This is an explain a result question.

The result we want to explain is why, of these two lemur populations, one in the rain forest and one in the deciduous forest, the lemurs in the DF are more active at night than the ones in the RF.

What's the difference between the RF and the DF?

The RF is covered by canopy year-round. The DF is not. So this may have something to do with why the lemurs in the DF are more active at night.

Ah, (B) explains it. If the predators of lemurs of both populations are birds that use their eyes to hunt during the day, what does that mean for each population? For the lemurs in the RF, it's not a big deal; they have the canopy. So maybe they still are a bit active during the day, but hidden, and don't have to restrict all of their activity to nighttime activity. For the lemurs in the DF, they can only be active at night when they won't be preyed upon. This would explain why they are more active than their RF counterparts.

I agree that this is a difficult answer choice to see as correct off the bat, so let's address the others:

(A) also introduces a daylight-specific problem, but competitors? This wouldn't explain why either group would be more or less active.

(C), like you said, doesn't explain the difference. Nor does (E). I can't think of how it could, even.

(D) is irrelevant.

So while you have to work a bit to see how (B) explains the result, the truth is that once you see the link, it is the only one that does. I'd still have reached it through process of elimination.

Hope this helps!

[rachel.miklaszewski]

I struggled between B and E.

B was right because deciduous lemurs can't move around in the day due to the high-flying bird predators. Thus, since nighttime is their only time to move, lemurs in deciduous forests are more active than rain forest lemurs at night.

But I thought E could be right too. My thought was that since lemurs in deciduous forests only have plants to eat and they have less plants alive in the winter than rain forest lemurs, they have to move more during their waking hours to get enough food to live.

Both require assumptions, so I'm struggling to see how you're supposed to chose between them. Please help!

[AyakiK696]

For these types of questions, should we always assume that the correct answer choice will hinge on the difference given in the stimulus? Or is it possible to have an answer choice that does not bring that into consideration?

[ohthatpatrick]

It's hard to make any absolute statements in the LSAT world, but yes you should definitely assume that at least 95% of the time, the difference we're trying to explain will relate to the distinction they've already provided us with.

If an answer choice gave us a whole different way to explain it, it would still be a correct answer (after all, the question stem is just asking "which of these answers would help to explain the difference"). And LSAT isn't going to pit one type of explanation vs. another and reward the one that "used the distinction".

So operate under the general assumption you were thinking, but always stay flexible in case you're doing a weird atypical problem.

[ZIYAOW681]

I struggled between B and E.

B was right because deciduous lemurs can't move around in the day due to the high-flying bird predators. Thus, since nighttime is their only time to move, lemurs in deciduous forests are more active than rain forest lemurs at night.

But I thought E could be right too. My thought was that since lemurs in deciduous forests only have plants to eat and they have less plants alive in the winter than rain forest lemurs, they have to move more during their waking hours to get enough food to live.

Both require assumptions, so I'm struggling to see how you're supposed to chose between them. Please help!

I once had this struggle too, but now I think E should be eliminated.

Though (E) argubly can contribute to a difference in lemurs' activity level in winter, this factor was not nocturnality-specific, while the question requires us to explain the difference in nocturnality ("explain the difference....with respect to winter activity patterns").