Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT15 S3 Q8 Explanation

Delta green ground beetles sometimes

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

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Stimulus

Delta green ground beetles sometimes remain motionless for hours at a stretch, although they are more active in wet years than in dry years. In 1989 an observer spotted ten delta green ground beetles in nine hours; in 1985 the same observer at the same location had counted 38 in about two period, however, because 1985 was a wet year and 1989 was relatively dry.

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
8.

Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports the conclusion

Answer choices

  1. Correct63% picked this

    Because of their excellent camouflage, delta green ground beetles are almost impossible to see if

    Why this is right

    This supports the plausibility of the author's hypothesis because it suggests that the observed low number in 1989 is due to the beetles being less active and thus harder to spot when they remain motionless due to a dry year. We know in 1989 that more of them would have been motionless, and so this answer allows us to say that in 1989 more of them would have been almost impossible to see.

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

  2. Mixed Impact17% picked this

    The only habitat of delta green ground beetles is around pools formed by the collection of winter

    This makes it sound like in the wetter years there was more habitat for the beetles. More habitat allows for higher population numbers. Less habitat during the dry years would allow for less population.. This answer strengthens insofar as it makes it sound like wet vs.dry could definitely have a causal influence on how many beetles we observe, but it weakens insofar it sounds like the wet vs. dry would actually lead to higher vs. lower population numbers..

  3. No Impact5% picked this

    Delta green ground beetles move about very little to get food; most of their moving from one place to another is

    Knowing that movement is related to reproductive behavior doesn't address why beetles were less observed in 1989. There's no common sense link that gets us from wet vs dry years to "more vs less reproductive behavior", so it's not clear how the wet/dry distinction would interact with this fact, if at all.

  4. No Impact1% picked this

    Delta green ground beetles are so rare that, although the first specimen was found in 1878, a second

    A historical fact about the rarity or discovery of the beetle doesn't help explain the observation discrepancy between wet and dry years discussed in the conclusion.

  5. No Impact14% picked this

    No predator relies on the delta green ground beetle for a major portion of

    The potential lack of predators depending on these beetles for food doesn’t provide information about population or observation discrepancies.

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