Q24

[asdarrow]

Is A wrong because the language is a bit too strong? Perhaps "discredit" cannot be supported by the text,but please explain if there is a different way to negate the wrong answersin this question! Thanks.

[ohthatpatrick]

In Reading Comp, whenever a question stem uses any of these phrases:
in order to
primarily to
serves to

.. the correct answer almost always paraphrases the idea before or after the quoted/referenced line that the question stem is asking about.

Quick example:
Many tennis players have successfully endured a lull in their career and returned to dominance after a long period of mediocrity. Andre Agassi dropped to #156 in the world rankings before returning to #1 at the late age of 33.

1. The author's reference to Agassi in line 26-27 primarily serves to:
[correct answer]
(A) illustrate that a decline in performance is not necessarily permanent

So for Q24, the "bookend" ideas surrounding the excerpt they're asking us about are saying that the Europe farmland situation is something that doesn't lend itself to the quick solution (replace topsoil), but certain researchers in the Netherlands don't want to wait for the long solution (allow natural processes to slowly return the soil to a natural state).

A) Netherlands isn't trying to discredit the idea that the soil would eventually restore itself, it's trying to speed up the process with human intervention

B) This doesn't have anything to do with the nearby context. We're talking about how to turn what was previously agricultural land back into natural land. Advocates of intense agricultural production have no part in this conversation.

C) This is the classic trap answer for this kind of question. Yes, the sentence shown in the question stem somewhat suggests that even if we overproduce on a plot of land, a damaged ecological system will fix itself over time. But these questions don't want you to comment on the quoted/referenced line themselves. The correct answer explains how the quoted/referenced line relates to its neighboring sentences. This answer doesn't.

D) "most common perception" is so extreme (and unsupported), it's a dead give-away that this is just a trap answer.

E) Sure. I might not have chosen these words as my own way of answering the question stem, but I can certainly feel good that this reinforces the "bookend" ideas surrounding the quoted/referenced line.

Hope this helps.

[rinagoldfield]

Here's the way I worked it out during my ManhattanLSAT instructor training. Hope it helps!

24. (E)
Question type: Identification

This question asks us to identify the function of a particular line. The statement that damaged ecological systems can restore themselves very slowly over time serves as an introduction to the Netherlands study. It follows that this fact functions as a justification for the study.

(A) is a contradictory interpretation. The Netherlands study doesn’t seek to refute the claim; rather, it is inspired by the slowness of the process described.

(B) is an unsupported interpretation, and out of scope. No justification for intense agricultural production is ever mentioned in the passage.

(C) is an unsupported interpretation. The author does not mention the fact that ecosystems can restore themselves over time to diminish the environmental impact of agricultural overproduction.

(D) is out of scope. The author describes the negative environmental impact of overproduction, not how this impact is perceived.

(E) correctly describes the function of this reference. The Dutch study is undertaken to find an answer to the slowness of the natural process in question.

[isaac.botier]

24. (E)
Question Type: Inference (15-17)

This question requires that we use information in the text to make an inference about the purpose of referencing that "damaged ecological systems will restore themselves very gradually over time." To do so we should go back to the text and read from the sentence that starts with "While the quickest way..." on line 12 till the end of the paragraph, so that we have a sense of the context of the phrase. We can see from the text that the purpose of letting us know about the natural restoration is that it sets up the reason for the Netherlands study to investigate whether the same process can be artificially accelerated. This is expressed in answer choice (E).

(A) is an unsupported interpretation. The Netherlands study is not trying to discredit the notion that damaged ecological systems will restore themselves gradually over time.

(B) is out of scope. There is no mention of people favoring intense agricultural production.

(C) is an unsupported interpretation. This might be appealing because if the systems can restore themselves over time then the effects of agricultural overproduction are possibly not as severe. However the author does not state that in the passage and there isn’t any mention of that notion either before or after the phrase in question.

(D) is an unsupported interpretation and is too strong. This is not perceived to be the reason agricultural overproduction is problematic. We should be alarmed here when we read "the most common perception."