Logical Reasoning

PT156 · S2 · Q14 When polar ice caps grow

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning 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

When polar ice caps grow (during ice ages, for example), lighter forms of oxygen from water vapor and seawater accumulate in the frozen ice caps, leaving greater concentrations of one heavy form of oxygen behind in the sea, where it is absorbed by marine organisms.

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

14.

The information given most strongly supports which one of the following hypotheses about the period described above?

  1. Average global temperatures 10,000 years

    Too Specific

    Too Specific: average global temperatures 10,000 years after the beginnning of the period

    1% picked this

  2. Polar ice caps at the

    Trap

    Unsupported Comparison: size of ice caps at the beginning vs. the end of the period

    15% picked this

  3. The beginning of the period

    Trap

    Thin Ice: (pun intended) Don't call it an ice age! Just because the ice caps grew for 20,000 years doesn't mean it was an ice age.

    6% picked this

  4. Correct

    The polar ice caps grew

    Why this is right

    Answer D is correct.

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

    76% picked this

  5. An ice age was drawing

    Trap

    Thin Ice: (pun intended) Don't call it an ice age! Just because the ice caps grew for 20,000 years then started to shrink doesn't mean it was an ice age drawing to an end.

    2% 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