#18 - The use of space-based satellites to study

[curiosity]

So I had the answer choices narrowed down to A and D. The way I saw D was that since we are trying to prevent environmental problems from arising, but actually using the spacecraft could damage the ozone layer, we are actually creating an environmental problem. How was I supposed to know that A was a preferred answer over D? (I can sort of see it now that I know the right answers - but this is a harder problem in the latter half of the section, so I always try to thoroughly examine each answer choice.) Thank you.

[Robert Carroll]

curiosity,

Answer choice (D) is not correct because the stimulus is discussing the reason why environmentalists have a blind spot about satellites, with the focus not on the fact that satellites are an attempt to improve environmental conditions that may make things worse, but instead on the fact that the utility of satellites for environmentalists' ends makes environmentalists ignore their harmful consequences. This is why answer choice (A) is correct - if people ignore the bad to focus on the good, that would explain why environmentalists did that in this particular case, whereas (D) leaves me wondering why they did that - why do they persist in something that thwarts their own ends?

Robert Carroll

[lsat2016]

Hello,
Doesn't "conform" in the question stem mean that we need to match the scope of the stimulus? I was thrown off by the word "tends" b/c isn't that a word that indicates "most"?

Thank you

[nicholaspavic]

Hi lsat,

Great question. This is a Strengthen Principle question that is a a bit unusual. For this kind of question ask yourself "What answer choice if true, makes that conclusion of 'environmentalists fail to consider both that spacecraft may damage the ozone layer and that this damage could be serious enough to warrant discontinuing spaceflight' more likely to be true?" Here Answer (A) fits that question nicely.

But with your intrepretation of "tend," I am not sure that I agree that it's synonymous with "most." I think here "tend" means regularly or frequently behave in a particular way. It's not necessarily as high of a quantification as "most" if that makes sense. Thanks and I hope that helps!

[cascott15]

Am I the only one that got tripped up by the "It is no wonder that..."? I originally selected A on this question but erased it and chose B after reflecting on the word choice. To me, saying "it's unsurprising that they support x" implies that consideration was given.

I'm just overall a little thrown off by why they would include that at all if they didn't intend for it to alter the meaning.

[James Finch]

Hi Cascott,

"It's no wonder that" is just a conclusion indicator here, don't let it throw you off.
Putting the attractive wrong answer choice right next to the correct one is a classic LSAT move, especially near the end of a section as the questions become more difficult. Here, you just need to keep your eyes on the prize, make a solid Prephrase that expresses the idea of willful ignorance, and trust your Prephrase to guide you to the correct answer choice.

Hope this helps!

[theamazingrace]

I chose A by process of elimination otherwise it didn't seem right to me because I thought of "failing to consider" and "ignoring" not to mean the same thing? I thought the stimulus was saying that because people could not observe environmental problems long before they otherwise would be noticed that is why environmentalists failed in the past.

Thanks

[Adam Tyson]

The stimulus is saying (and here I am going to radically simplify it) that if we get some good from something, we might just ignore the bad stuff. Could be true of a toxic relationship, or a job, or an environmental policy.

The answer and the stimulus don't have to match exact meanings. It's just that the right answer needs to provide a rule of some sort that would help make the argument be a little better. And we do "fail to consider" the things that we ignore, even if ignoring and failing to consider are not the same thing. That is, I can fail to consider something without having ignored it, but for sure if I ignore it I must also fail to consider it! If I considered it, I wouldn't be ignoring it, would I?

If we accept the rule in answer A, then it makes the argument a little better. If people tend to ignore those objectionable consequences, then it is no wonder that some environmentalists might fail to consider the harm done by spacecraft that are having some beneficial effects!