Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT103 S1 Q16 Explanation

The point at issue between Henry

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsAgree/Disagree

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Stimulus

Henry: Some scientists explain the dance of honeybees as the means by which honeybees communicate the location of whatever food source they have just visited to other members of the hive. But honeybees do not need so complicated a mechanism to communicate that information. Forager honeybees returning to their hive simply leave There must therefore be some other explanation for the honeybees’ dance.

Winifred: Not necessarily. Most animals have several ways of accomplishing critical tasks. Bees of some species can navigate using either the position of the Sun or the memory of landmarks. Similarly, for not an exclusive means of communicating.

What this question is testing

Agree/Disagree

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
16.

The point at issue between Henry and Winifred

Answer choices

  1. Out of Scope2% picked this

    theories of animal behavior can be established on the basis of evidence about only one

    Out of Scope: theories of animal behavior Neither person is making any claims about on what basis "theories of animal behavior" can or can't be established. For us to pick this answer, we'd have to be able to derive from either Person 1 or Person 2's statements, that they believe "Theories of animal behavior can never be based on evidence about only one species". We can't infer a strong position like that from either paragraph.

  2. Unsupported Both36% picked this

    there is more than one valid explanation for the dance of

    We wouldn't be able to infer that either person would sign off on this claim. Henry thinks there is some explanation for the dance besides location of food. But he's probably assuming it's just one explanation. Winnie thinks that the purpose of the dance may well be food location. But she isn't necessarily thinking that the dance is also used for something else (she's only saying that something else may be used for food location, and that would be totally normal). In short, we don't know their positions on this claim. They probably would both say, "I don't believe there's more than one. I think there's probably just one valid explanation." They just disagree about what that one valid explanation is. (food location? or some other explanation?)

  3. Correct60% picked this

    honeybees communicate the location of food sources through

    Why this is right

    Henry would say "No, there must be some other explanation (besides communicating food location) for the dance." Winnie is saying, "Yes, honeybees communicate food location with their dance. They also communicate food location with a scent trail." By saying that the scent trail is supplementary, not exclusive, she's saying that the scent trail is Method #2 for communicating food location. It's implied that Method #1 is the dance.

    Skill tested: Agree/Disagree · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

  4. Too Strong: the only0% picked this

    the honeybee is the only species of bee that is capable of communicating navigational information

    We wouldn't be able to derive from either person's statements that they would agree with this extreme claim. Neither person is singling out the honeybee as the only species of bee that can do this.

  5. Both Agree2% picked this

    the honeybee’s sense of smell plays a role in its

    Both people acknowledge that the honeybee uses a scent trail as a food location (foraging) technique.

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