Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT113 S3 Q11 Explanation

Several thousand years ago, people

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

TopicsParadox

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Stimulus

Several thousand years ago, people in what is now North America began to grow corn, which grows faster and produces more food per unit of land than do the grains these people had grown previously. Corn is less nutritious than those other grains, however, and soon after these people established corn as staple grain, although they could have returned to growing the more nutritious grains.

What this question is testing

Paradox

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
11.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain why the people mentioned continued to grow corn as

Answer choices

  1. Trap14% picked this

    The variety of corn that the people relied on as their staple grain produced more food than did

  2. Trap4% picked this

    Modern varieties of corn are more nutritious than were the varieties grown by people in North America

  3. Trap4% picked this

    The people did not domesticate large animals for meat or milk, either of which could supply nutrients

  4. Trap3% picked this

    Some grain crops that could have been planted instead of corn required less fertile soil in order to

  5. Correct75% picked this

    The people discovered some years after adopting corn as their staple grain that a diet that supplemented corn with certain readily available

    Why this is right

    Answer E is correct.

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

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