Logical Reasoning

PT103 · S1 · Q17 In Winifred’s response to Henry

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

Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one
Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step
81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

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.

Henry's Conclusion

There must be some explanation (besides trying to send the location of food) for the honeybees' dance.

Henry's Evidence

They don't need a complicated mechanism like a dance to send the location of food; they could just leave a scent trail from the food to the hive.

Winnie's Response

There doesn't necessarily need to be some other explanation. (i.e. the honeybees' dance may genuinely be to guide other honeybees to a food source.

Winnie's Evidence

Most animals have multiple ways to accomplish the same task (some bees can navigate using position of Sun or by using memory of landmarks), so even though honeybees can use a scent trail, they can also use a dance.

Evaluate

Why did Winnie mention how bees navigate? It was an example of the claim, .

These bee species are animals. A critical task is navigating. They have multiple ways: using position of the Sun or the memory of landmarks.

Goal

In the context of Winnie's argument, the two different ways that some bees navigate is support for an Intermediate Conclusion (most animals have several ways of accomplishing critical tasks), which is then support for her Main Conclusion that .

In the context of how it relates to Henry's argument, he was kind of assuming that . So Winnie's two-ways-to-navigate example is undermining one of Henry's assumptions.

17.

In Winifred's response to Henry, the statement about how bees of some species navigate plays which one of the following roles?

It addresses an ambiguity in
Wrong Role
Her statement provides an example of "animals have several ways of accomplishing critical tasks", which goes against Henry's assumption that "if the bees have scent trail as an option to accomplish the critical task of providing directions to food, then they wouldn't also use some other method in addition". It has nothing to do with any ambiguity in "communicate the location", which has a very clear meaning.
3% picked this
Correct
It provides evidence in support
Why this is right
Her statement about how some bees navigate provides an example of "animals have several ways of accomplishing critical tasks". Examples = evidence in support of a claim Is it a general claim to say, "Most animals have several ways of accomplishing critical tasks"? Definitely. That's a generalization about most animals.
Skill tested: Role · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
70% picked this
It calls into question the
Wrong Role
Her statement about how some bees navigate calls into question Henry's assumption that "if the bees have scent trail as an option to accomplish the critical task of providing directions to food, then they wouldn't also use some other method in addition". But it doesn't call into question any evidence cited by Henry (it doesn't undermine any explicit claims).
11% picked this
It points out that Henry’s
Too Strong: contradicts
The idea that an author has contradicted himself is wrong 99.5% of the time we see it on LSAT. Contradicting yourself is very hard to do and sounds ridiculous. Since Henry's conclusion was "there must be some other explanation for the honeybees' dance", this answer is accusing Henry of having had a premise that said "the only explanation for the honeybees' dance is to communicate the location of a food source", which of course was not a premise that Henry had.
3% picked this
It proposes an alternative explanation
Wrong Role
Winnie's statement that "some bees navigate by doing X or by doing Y" has nothing to do with the honeybees' dance. In fact, it's not even a statement about honeybees. It's implied that she's talking about other species of bees. They are not dancing; they are not sending friends to food sources. These other bees are just trying to navigate around the world. This answer seems to imply that Winnie is bringing up these other bees in order to suggest that "the REAL explanation for the honeybees' dance is that ... they use the dance to navigate"? That's definitely not what she's saying.
13% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill

LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free