Reading Comprehension

PT125 · S1 · P2 · Q6 Drilling Muds

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension 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

Start practicing free

Passage A Drilling fluids, including the various mixtures known as drilling muds, play essential roles in oil-well drilling.

Central Topic / Purpose

Drilling muds / to describe something and highlight a problem associated with it

Main Point

Drilling muds are carefully calibrated liquids important in oil-well drilling, but their complexity and the opacity of their recipes make it hard to study their environmental impact.

Central Topic / Purpose

Environmental impact of drilling muds / to describe the different environmental impacts of different drilling muds

Main Point

Water-based mud isn't very harmful and can be tossed overboard, while oil-based muds are potentially harmful and their disposal is much more tightly regulated.

Relationship

Both passages shared similar topics (drilling mud / environmental impact). Passage A felt a little more like it was trying to highlight a potential problem, while Passage B is written more in the style of neutrally describing the potential harm of OBM's. Overall, they seem pretty complementary and overlapping.

6.

A primary purpose of each of the passages is to

  1. provide causal explanations for a

    Out Of Scope: causal explanations

    While both passages allude to the potential harm that these muds can do, they aren't saying, "drilling muds were responsible for incident X". They also aren't detailing the process by which the mud could do damage (the other meaning of the word 'explanation')

    2% picked this

  2. Correct

    describe the general composition and

    Why this is right

    This sounds like the first of our two prephrases. In both passages we hear a little about the ingredients of these muds and what properties they have, as those relate to their usefulness in oil-well drilling.

    Skill tested: Primary Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    70% picked this

  3. point out possible environmental impacts

    Fails Passage A

    This sounds like our other prephrase. It seems mean of LSAT to put this other overlapping idea as a different answer choice. Passage A didn't point out any specific environmental problems. It alluded to the idea that it's hard to study "the effects of drilling waste discharges". It didn't point out any possible impacts, like Passage B did with scallops.

    19% picked this

  4. explain why oil-well drilling requires

    Fails Passage B: requires

    While both passages help us understand the usefulness of drilling muds, only Passage A indicated that they're "essential" to oil-well drilling.

    4% picked this

  5. identify difficulties inherent in the

    Fails Passage B

    Only Passage A's last paragraph does this. Passage B makes it seem as though regulation of oil-well drilling is pretty well sorted out. It just provides descriptive summary of how we currently regulate, without indicating there are problems with the regulatory process.

    5% 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