Q9 - Rodents are small, gnawing mammals

[Laura Damone]

Question Type:
Inference (Most Strongly Supported)

Stimulus Breakdown:
No argument, so we just need the facts: Rodents are small. gnawing mammals with chisel teeth (gross), and while most mammal species in North America aren't rodent species, most North American mammals are rodents.

Answer Anticipation:
This stimulus makes me think: Percentage vs. Amount. If most mammal species aren't rodent species, but most of the individual mammals are rodents, what does that imply? Well, it must be that rodent species are more populous than at least some other mammal species.

Correct answer:
B

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Unsupported. We know that most North American mammal species aren't rodents. But, be careful here. If this answer read "Most species of North American mammals don't have chisel-like incisor teeth," it would still be incorrect. We don't know whether other mammal species have chisel-like incisor teeth. Maybe they do and maybe they don't. That means we can't know what percent of North American mammal species have this trait.

(B) Sounds like our prediction! It's a little more extreme in its degree ("tend to have" vs. "have more than at least some"), so we want to be cautious. But unless there's a similar answer with that lesser degree, this is our best bet.

(C) Unsupported. We don't know what percentage of rodent species are in North America, or what percentage of mammal species as a whole have chisel-like incisor teeth.

(D) Too extreme.

(E) Unsupported. We don't know the global makeup of mammal species, rodent or non-rodent.

Takeaway/Pattern:
When you see words about percent or proportion (most), consider how those proportions intersect with actual numeric amounts. This concept is tested at least once on every LSAT!

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