Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT12 S1 Q16 Explanation

Salmonella is a food‐borne microorganism

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

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Stimulus

Salmonella is a food‐borne microorganism that can cause intestinal illness. The illness is sometimes fatal, especially if not identified quickly and treated. Conventional Salmonella tests on food samples are slow and can miss unusual strains of the microorganism. A new test identifies the presence or absence of Salmonella by the one piece well advised to replace the previous Salmonella tests with the new test.

What this question is testing

Weaken

Your task

Find the choice that makes the argument's conclusion less likely to be true.

Common trap

Answers that look negative but attack a claim the argument never relied on.

Winning move

Find the assumption the argument depends on, then pick the choice that undermines it.

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.

Which one of the following, if true, most substantially weakens

Answer choices

  1. No Impact16% picked this

    The new test identifies genetic material from Salmonella organisms only and not

    If anything, it sounds like a good thing that the new test is specific to Salmonella. That way similar bacteria won't be giving us false positives. We're looking for something negative about the new test.

  2. Correct74% picked this

    The new test detects the presence of Salmonella at levels that are too low to pose a

    Why this is right

    If the new test detects Salmonella at levels too low to pose a health risk, this undermines the argument. The new test might result in many false alarms, detecting harmless low levels of Salmonella, potentially causing unnecessary panic, misuse of resources, or misguided interventions that offer no real health benefit.

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

  3. No Impact3% picked this

    Salmonella is only one of a variety of food- borne microorganisms that can

    The fact that other illnesses also cause gut problems has nothing to do with us deciding how we should test for Salmonella.

  4. No Impact1% picked this

    The new test has been made possible only recently by dramatic advances

    We don't care about the backstory leading up to this new test, unless it suggests an upside or downside compared to the current test. If anything, this suggests an upside, since it's made possible by "dramatic advances in science". We want to hear something negative about the new test.

  5. No Impact / No Distinction6% picked this

    Symptoms of Salmonella poisoning are often mistaken for those of other

    We're trying to figure out how we should test for Salmonella. The fact that its symptoms can be mistaken for those of other illnesses might lead to false diagnoses if the current test or new test can't tell the difference between Salmonella and these other illnesses. But we have no reason to think that the existence of these similar illnesses would confuse one test more than the other. If anything, we know that the new test would not be confused by what this answer is saying, because the new test has nothing to do with analyzing a person's symptoms. It just involves testing for a piece of genetic material.

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