#16 - Concept Reference, Strengthen

[tetsuya0129]

Hi Powerscore,
I had trouble understanding the grammar of "B"; specifically, the subject inconsistency in B threw me off. What does "THE anteater" really mean here?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi tetsuya,

In this answer choice, that phrase is a common construction that indicates a class of things, and its equivalent would be "any anteater" or "all anteaters" or "anteaters." Thus, there's no real subject inconsistency. It would've been the same answer if it had said, "Anteaters developed long snouts because anteaters stretch their snouts in order to reach ants hidden well below ground."

Here's a similar construction: "The grizzly bear hibernates in winter." That's the same as saying, "Grizzly bears (as a class) hibernate in winter." That's the same as saying, "Any grizzly bear hibernates in winter."

Let me know if that clears up the confusion? Hopefully it does!

[tetsuya0129]

Hi Jeremy,
Thank you for your help! I am not sure whether I missed something in your explanation.

I checked the grammar usage of "the": it is "used to refer to a particular member of a group or class. It may be something that the speaker has already mentioned or it may be otherwise something uniquely specified."

To me, there seems a shift from talking about "all anteaters" to an unspecified one.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi tetsuya,

What you're referring to is a potential ambiguity in the answer choice. But that ambiguity should be resolved contextually, and it should be resolved in a way that makes the answer make sense. Can the reference to "the anteater" naturally be read as a reference to the class of anteaters? Yes. If you try to read the reference as a reference to some unspecified anteater, the answer makes no sense, right? When there are potential ambiguities in answers like these on the test, they should be resolved in ways that make sense. The test's writers don't intend to write things that are nonsensical. Follow this rule when you encounter potential ambiguities, and you won't be led astray!

[tetsuya0129]

I see! Thank you so much for your time!! This really helps!

[lsatquestions]

Why is B preferable to A?

[Beth Hayden]

Hi LSAT,

This passage is a bit technical and hard to digest! Part of why it's difficult is that the author never explicitly talks about Darwin's theories, but it is implied that Lamark's view of evolution is different and distinct because most biologists don't even think it's possible (lines 9-10).

As you may remember from biology, the prevailing viewpoint on evolution is Darwin's "survival of the fittest"--the idea that members of a species with favorable traits will be the ones healthy enough to grow up and reproduce, passing along those "good" genes and filtering out the bad ones. Answer choice (A) is an illustration of this point: antlers help deer survive, and so the ones that reproduce and pass along their genes tend to have antlers. But answer choice (A) is incorrect because the question is not asking us what Darwin thought, it's asking about what Lamark thought.

Lamark's hypothesis is that members of a species can pass along characteristics to their offspring that were acquired during its lifetime (rather than just the things they were born with). The giraffe example on lines 4-6 is a great illustration of this. Darwin might say that the giraffes with the longest necks were the ones able to survive and reproduce, passing along that "long neck" gene. On the other hand, Lamark thought that long ago giraffes actually stretched their necks to be able to reach their food, making them longer, and then passed along those longer necks to their offspring. Wild, right! Even though biologists can't figure out a scientific explanation to support Lamark's theory, the author is arguing that he still could have been right because there are real examples of animals and organisms that seem to have evolved certain traits in this manner.

So while answer choice (A) supports Darwin's theory, answer choice (B) supports Lamark's theory. This is very similar to the giraffe example: anteaters with shorter snouts would stretch them to be able to reach food and then pass along those longer snouts to their children.

I hope that helps!
Beth Hayden