Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT113 S4 Q10 Explanation

Lydia: Red squirrels are known

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

TopicsMethod

Keep going in LSAT Lab

  • 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

Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Stimulus

Lydia: Red squirrels are known to make holes in the bark of sugar maple trees and to consume the trees' sap. Since sugar maple sap is essentially water with a small concentration of sugar, the squirrels almost certainly are after either water or sugar. Water is easily available from other sources in in trees just to get water. Therefore, they are probably after the sugar.

Galina: It must be something other than sugar, because the concentration of sugar in the maple sap is so low that a squirrel would need to drink an enormous any significant amount of sugar.

What this question is testing

Method

Your task

Describe how the argument proceeds — the technique it uses to reach its conclusion.

Common trap

Answers that describe a method the argument doesn't actually use.

Winning move

Track the role each statement plays, then match that to the choice describing the same moves.

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

The question
10.

Lydia’s argument proceeds

Answer choices

  1. Trap3% picked this

    dismissing potentially disconfirming

  2. Trap2% picked this

    citing a general rule of which the conclusion is a

  3. Trap10% picked this

    presenting an observed action as part of a larger pattern

  4. Trap2% picked this

    drawing an analogy between well-understood phenomena and an

  5. Correct84% picked this

    rejecting a possible alternative explanation for an

    Why this is right

    Answer E is correct.

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

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

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

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