LR Question 11 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: A bacterial species will inevitably develop greater…
QUESTION TYPE: Most Strongly Supported
FACTS:
- Antibiotics will produce resistant bacteria, unless the antibiotics can eliminate the bacteria entirely.
- Bacteria X can’t be eliminated by any single anti-biotic.
ANALYSIS: On “most strongly supported” questions, it’s important not to assume more than the question tells you.
We can conclude exactly one thing from the facts above: If any single existing anti-biotic is used against bacteria X, then bacteria X will develop resistance.
We don’t know whether bacteria X can be eliminated. Maybe a combination of drugs can eliminate it. We also don’t know what future antibiotics will be able to do.
___________
- We don’t know. Maybe future antibiotics will be able to deal with bacteria X.
- CORRECT. This is true, because none of the antibiotics on the market can eliminate bacteria X by itself.
- Careful….there might be other ways of eliminating bacteria, apart from antibiotics. Maybe quarantines and good hygiene can eliminate bacteria X.
- The stimulus only talked about greater resistance – it didn’t mention virulence. Virulence is how strong a bacteria is. This answer has no support at all from the stimulus.
- We don’t know if any antibiotics have been used against bacteria X. This answer has no support.
Recap: The question begins with “A bacterial species will inevitably develop”. It is a Most Strongly Supported question. To practice more Most Strongly Supported questions, have a look at the LSAT Questions by Type page.
More Resources for Most Strongly Supported Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Most Strongly Supported questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers most strongly supported questions.
I know why B is right and E is wrong. But one thing I still don’t get is that why Graeme reasoned “We don’t know if any antibiotics have been used against bacteria X. ” I think from “antibiotics that have been used” and “those antibiotics were used”, we can safely say that some antibiotics were indeed used against bacteria X.
Please help.
Remember, this answer choice is a hypothetical scenario, i.e. our job while answering this question is to try to determine whether each of these answer choices could follow from what we’re given in the stimulus (and then which one is most strongly supported by the stimulus)
We’re not given enough information in the stimulus to know whether anything was even tested on species X. All we’re told is that no single antibiotic currently on the market is powerful enough to completely eliminate it.
Got it. Thanks Lucas!
Ok, I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I guess B seems like the best of bad answers for this question. However, It still seems like B can’t be correct.
Immagine this scenario: Antibiotic 1 and antibiotic 2, when used in combination, can eliminate X completely.
If antibiotic 1 is used ONLY when antibiotic 2 is also used, X will never have a chance to develop greater resistance to antibiotic 1.
I can’t think think of a reason why this scenario is impossible. If this scenario is possible, I do not understand how B can be correct.
Eh, it’s a most strongly supported. They don’t need to be 100% supported. This is a crucial difference between this type and must be true questions. The scenario you described, while possible, is not probable. It would be very hard to have the antibiotic ONLY be used in such circumstances. So B is still pretty well supported. Especially since we don’t know if any combo can completely eliminate either.
Ryan and Graeme,
I’ve also thought about answer choice B a bit myself. The way I see it is that they mean:
‘If any [single] antibiotic (singular) now on the market is (also singular) used …’
Some prep companies maintain that conditional/causal reasoning on the LSAT is ironclad, meaning the cause is the one and only cause leading to a stated effect and without the cause you can’t have the effect; also the sufficient conditions for conditional reasoning are the only conditions present. If you could just add other sufficients at your leisure, you could just say that you’re going to use nanorobots to completely eliminate X after using ‘any [single] antibiotic’ to kill most of it. The same applies with using extreme heat or alcohol to completely eliminate X. These solutions are pretty untenable though, agreed?
That having been said, this AC falls into the ‘last man standing, yet still not perfect’ category for me. The other 4 ACs are clearly incorrect, but I am not totally satisfied with the remaining one. On test day, I would just choose it and move on, finding solace in the fact that my test is going to be disclosed in a month. If by some freak incidence, it were wrong, I’d think about it real hard and write in to LSAC about it. So Ryan, I wouldn’t drive myself crazy thinking about MSS questions like this.
On a side note, I almost found AC E tempting because the wording suggests that some antibiotics have already been used on X, which would lead to X developing some immunity “WITHIN A FEW YEARS”. However, the “within a few years” is never mentioned, so we could just as easily say that X were introduced to an antibiotic yesterday, in which case we have a few years (minus one day) before it develops a resistance.
That’s a good point re: introducing new sufficient conditions into an answer choice. For most strongly supported (MSS) questions, we’re supposed to apply and examine answer choices in their current form, and not introduce new conditions or possibilities–because, then, what is our justification for choosing one hypothetical condition or possibility over another? This is the issue with trying to counter (B) by saying something like “what if another antibiotic was used in combination with this one, and the combination of the two eliminated X?”
Just one quick note about your commentary: MSS questions are not MBT questions–they don’t need to perfectly follow from the letter of the stimulus. So, to say that an answer isn’t “perfect” while completing an MSS question doesn’t really take away from that answer choice. The answer choice is supposed to be the best of the five, the one that most closely approximates the letter of the stimulus.