Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT147 S1 Q12 Explanation

Ampicillin and other modern antibiotics

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

TopicsStrengthen

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Stimulus

Ampicillin and other modern antibiotics kill a much wider variety of bacteria than penicillin does. They also carry higher profit margins, so drug companies now have an incentive to stop manufacturing the older, less profitable antibiotics. This could cause a penicillin shortage, forcing doctors to use the much more powerful new antibiotics result in an outbreak of diseases caused by drug-resistant bacteria, since _______.

What this question is testing

Strengthen

Your task

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

Common trap

Answers that are consistent with the argument but add no real support, or that strengthen a claim the argument doesn't make.

Winning move

Locate the gap between evidence and conclusion, then pick the choice that closes 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
12.

The conclusion of the argument is most strongly supported if which one of the following

Answer choices

  1. Correct79% picked this

    drug-resistant bacteria flourish in the absence of competition from a wide variety

    Why this is right

    This connects "newer antibiotics / killing a much wider variety of bacteria" to the emergence of "drug-resistant bacteria". People use the newer antibiotics more, which means that a much wider variety of bacteria are killed off. Drug-resistant bacteria flourish when there isn't competition from a wide variety of other bacteria. So by killing off a wide variety of bacteria, we're creating conditions for drug-resistant bacteria to flourish.

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

  2. No Impact2% picked this

    older antibiotics like penicillin have been widely used for

    This has nothing to do with connecting "newer antibiotics / killing a much wider variety of bacteria" to the emergence of "drug-resistant bacteria". It doesn't talk about newer antibiotics or drug-resistant bacteria.

  3. No Impact1% picked this

    a shortage of penicillin would drive up its price and

    This has nothing to do with connecting "newer antibiotics / killing a much wider variety of bacteria" to the emergence of "drug-resistant bacteria". It doesn't talk about newer antibiotics or drug-resistant bacteria.

  4. No Impact4% picked this

    treatment of diseases with the powerful new antibiotics is much more expensive than treatment with

    This has nothing to do with connecting "newer antibiotics / killing a much wider variety of bacteria" to the emergence of "drug-resistant bacteria". It tells us that we'll have to spend a lot more money if we start treating people more and more with the newer antibiotics, but how do we get from "spending more money on treatments" to outbreaks of diseases caused by drug-resistant bacteria?

  5. No Impact14% picked this

    most bacteria that are resistant to penicillin are not resistant to ampicillin and

    This answer is saying "most of what penicillin can't kill CAN be killed by the newer antibiotics". So if we start using the newer antibiotics more, then we'll be killing some bacteria that previously wasn't being killed by penicillin. It feels like we already kind of knew this, since we were told that the newer antibiotics can kill a much wider variety of bacteria than can penicillin. We can't strengthen by reiterating something we already know.

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