LSAT and Law School Admissions Forum

Get expert LSAT preparation and law school admissions advice from PowerScore Test Preparation.

 Administrator
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 8919
  • Joined: Feb 02, 2011
|
#78694
Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!
 olivia
  • Posts: 2
  • Joined: Aug 31, 2020
|
#78620
Can you please explain why the answer is B?

Thanks!
 Paul Marsh
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 290
  • Joined: Oct 15, 2019
|
#78651
Hey Olivia! This question is asking us about the viewpoint of the late 19th century biochemists. Hopefully as we were reading the passage, we marked down (with a V!) that the latter half of the second paragraph is where we most explicitly get those biochemists' views. So to Pre-Phrase this question, I would come back to that portion of the passage. Specifically, we are told:
Many biochemists, on the other hand, remained skeptical of the idea that so much structure existed, arguing that the chemical reactions that occur in cytological preparations might create the appearance of such structures. Also, they stood apart from the debate then raging over whether protoplasm, the complex of living material within a cell, is homogeneous, networklike, granular, or foamlike. Their interest lay in the more "fundamental" issues of the chemical nature of protoplasm, especially the newly formulated enzyme theory of life.
When I come down to my answer choices, I'm going to look for one that is explicitly supported by that portion of the passage.

Answer Choice (A): The quoted portion of the passage explicitly supports the opposite of this; biochemists were skeptical about cell structure.

Answer Choice (B): This is the right answer. It lines up very nicely with the last sentence of the quoted portion of the passage, which states that biochemists were primarily interested in the chemical nature of protoplasm.

Answer Choice (C): Nowhere in that area of the passage (or indeed anywhere in the passage) are "behavioral patterns" mentioned.

Answer Choice (D): The biochemists are interested in the chemical nature, not the physical nature, of protoplasm.

Answer Choice (E): Nothing in our relevant area of the passage says anything about how the methods of chemistry must be supplemented.

So our quoted area of the passage gives clear textual support for (B), but no support for the others. Hope that helps!
User avatar
 sdb606
  • Posts: 78
  • Joined: Feb 22, 2021
|
#86084
I chose B but I still think it's a weak answer.

Rephrasing B: Understand cell processes :arrow: discover chemical composition of protoplasm.

This means if I want to understand the processes of the cell, I must first discover the chemical composition of protoplasm. But what if I want to understand a cellular process that has nothing to do with protoplasm? B is making a leap that says that protoplasm understanding is a requirement for all other cell processes. Is this accurate?

Is this a MBT question because I don't see support for B in the passage. Is it a Could Be True question? In that case, I can see how B would be correct.
 Jeremy Press
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 1000
  • Joined: Jun 12, 2017
|
#86161
Hi sdb,

It's not a Could Be True question, because, if it were, an answer choice like C that references "behavioral patterns in organisms" (an issue the passage doesn't reference) would have to be correct. Anything beyond the scope of passage, but not incompatible with the passage, is something that could be true.

We're looking for the answer that is "most compatible" with the referenced biochemists' views, and in that sense we're looking for the answer that has the most support for being compatible with their views. That's a "most strongly supported" form of Must Be True question. In that kind of question, we do get a little leeway from the strict "Fact Test" way of looking at things that we'd use in a strict Must Be True question. So I'm not as concerned as you that there might be a little "daylight" between the answer and the passage. That often happens in "most strongly supported" Must Be True questions.

Your understanding of the conditional structure of answer choice B is correct. How compatible is that conditional assertion with the biochemists' views? It's pretty compatible, because apparently they considered the chemical nature of protoplasm to be "fundamental," which would put the chemical composition of protoplasm at the root of other things cell-related (and thus a necessary first step for knowledge). Now is it possible these biochemists didn't think protoplasm's chemical composition was fundamental for every single cell-related thing? I suppose. But, again, that's the kind of "daylight" that just doesn't concern me on a question that asks for something "most compatible." It's by far the answer that is "most compatible" with the views I have to work with in the passage. There's no other answer that's better. That makes it correct.

I hope this helps!

Get the most out of your LSAT Prep Plus subscription.

Analyze and track your performance with our Testing and Analytics Package.