#6 - Lourdes: Dietary fiber is an important part of a

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below! Thanks!

[hassan66]

I came across this problem in the LR Question Type Training and I was stumped because Answer Choice A just seemed to be too obvious so I spent a lot of time trying to see which of the other four answers could be correct. This question seems atypical of the more recent LR questions. I feel as though A would be given as a trick (albeit with a flaw) in a more recent exam. Would this be fair to say?

[Brook Miscoski]

Hassan,

When reading the stimulus, your reaction was probably that the conclusion depends on how much fiber adults are eating. Answer choice (A) attacks the conclusion by pointing out that they are eating too little fiber, so telling them to eat less fiber would be a bad recommendation.

The LSAT has easier questions as well as harder questions. You should not be surprised when you encounter easier questions with obvious answers near the beginning of a section. You should still eliminate the wrong choices, but it is not true that recent tests contain clearly right answer choices are traps. Instead, be aggressive but still careful enough that you do not misinterpret a stimulus or answer choice.

[christinecwt]

Hi - May I know why Answer Choice B is incorrect while Answer Choice A is correct? Thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

Kyra is trying to prove that the public should be told to cut back on their fiber, because too much of it can be a bad thing. To weaken that claim, christinecwt, we want an answer that suggests that the public is not consuming too much fiber, and that is exactly what answer A does. Lourdes told us that 20 to 35 grams per day is a good amount, so if people are, on average, consuming only 10 grams per day then Kyra's advice seems misplaced. If A is true, we should probably be encouraging the public to consume MORE fiber, not less!

Answer B does nothing to Kyra's argument because it tells us nothing about how much fiber people are consuming. Even if the fiber is broken down and the fiber content is reduced in processed foods, are people consuming more than the recommended amount? We don't know! Maybe people are consuming more than 35 grams per day despite this issue with processed food, in which case Kyra might be correct. For answer B to weaken her argument, we need to know more than what it tells us.