Physician: The rise in blood pressure

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct67% picked this

   There is in milk, in a form that older people can generally utilize, enough of the active form of vitamin D and any other

   Why this is right

   This establishes that milk is a plausible way to address the cause of the calcium deficiency: not enough active form of vitamin D for the body to absorb calcium. Now that we know that most older people could plausibly consume a version of milk that provides them with enough active vitamin D that their body can absorb the calcium in milk, we know that the calcium in the milk they drink will actually be absorbed, which will make up for their calcium deficiency, which will then avoid the rise in blood pressure caused by that deficiency, which means they will have lower blood pressure. Basically, if we know that some older people currently have a rise in blood pressure because of an underlying calcium deficiency, then being told that people can drink a form of milk that will remove that underlying calcium deficiency means that "we have a way for some older people to avoid that rise in blood pressure". i.e., "milk can lower their blood pressure" I must say, this is one of the loosest correct answers I've ever seen on Sufficient Assumption. Haunting, even. It definitely does not 100% prove the conclusion, given that this answer is only saying that most older people can use this form of milk. We have no way to prove that the 51% of older people who can use this milk overlaps with the unknown percent of older people who have this high BP / calcium deficiency issue. And it doesn't do anything to remove the concern that there could be aspects of milk that increase your blood pressure, so it's highly possible that milk does some good things and some bad things for blood pressure, thus highly calling into question the conclusion. In short, this question is deeply, deeply flawed, and I'm not sure how it escaped their quality control filters. Apparently, enough 170+ test takers aggregated around this correct answer, so LSAT didn't have to banish it into "item removed from scoring" fate.

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

   67%
2. B

   Necessary, not Sufficient11% picked this

   Milk does not contain any substance that is likely to cause increased blood pressure

   We are definitely assuming this, yes. If milk did have some chemical agent that increases BP, that would be a big objection to the argument. You know what else would be a big objection to the argument --- if drinking milk gave your body calcium but not the ability to absorb that calcium. (A) rules out that objection. (B) rules out this objection. We have no real way to rank one above the other, other than thinking, "Well, on a broken question such as this ... is the test writer likely to think the affirmational LINKING answer in (A) was sufficient or that the protective DEFENDER answer in (B) was sufficient?" The tone this answer has of "ruling out an objection" feels more at home on Necessary Assumption. That's not an excuse for their poor test writing; it's just advice for a crappy, unfair situation.

   11%
3. C

   Too Weak14% picked this

   Older people’s drinking one glass of milk per day does not contribute to a deficiency in the active form of vitamin D needed in

   This is something that needs to be assumed, but it doesn't prove the conclusion true, as the correct answer should. Just because "milk doesn't subtract the active form of vitamin D" doesn't mean that it does provide it. In order to prove this conclusion we need to know that milk fixes the "deficiency in the active form of vitamin D needed in order for the body to absorb calcium". This answer doesn't establish that.

   14%
4. D

   Out of Scope: normal3% picked this

   People who consume high quantities of calcium together with the active form of vitamin D and any other substances needed in order for the

   There's nothing in this argument about normal / abnormal blood pressure. We're talking about relative shifts up or down, from whatever baseline a given older person is at before they get or get rid of a calcium deficiency.

   3%
5. E

   Not Quite5% picked this

   Anyone who has a deficiency in the active form of vitamin D also has

   We're trying to argue that drinking milk can lower an older person's blood pressure. We know that drinking milk can provide enough calcium to make up for any underlying calcium deficiency, but that won't matter if the body doesn't have enough active vitamin D to allow for calcium absorption. We need to know that if we get rid of ? we also get rid of calcium deficiency vitamin D deficiency This is saying if we have vitamin ? we have calcium D deficiency deficiency This feels pretty close to being the contrapositive, but "have / not have" is not the same as "get rid of / don't get rid of", so it's not actually helping to convince us that, "If you drink enough calcium to get rid of your calcium deficiency, even if you have a vitamin D deficiency, your body will still be able to absorb it".

   5%