PrepTest 112, Section 1, Question 18
Moderate exercise lowers the risk of blockage of(52 more words not shown)
The conclusion drawn above follows(9 more words not shown)
- AThe recent study(9 more words not shown)
- BBlockage of the(8 more words not shown)
- CLowering blood cholesterol(9 more words not shown)
- DThe data reported(6 more words not shown)
- EHardening of the(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Does moderate exercise lower cholesterol? That is the connection I'm looking for when the argument moves from its conclusion about exercise to its evidence about cholesterol.
The last clause supplies that connection, but with a condition: if the study's reported data are correct. We aren't actually told that they are correct. That's the remaining question, even though the rest of the reasoning fits together.
Check the links. Lower cholesterol leads to a lower risk of hardened arteries, which leads to a lower risk of blockage due to blood clots. If moderate exercise lowers cholesterol, it starts that whole chain and gets us to the conclusion. We don't need to invent a mistake between the later links; the passage supplies them.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what would make the conclusion follow. I'd predict an answer confirming the study's data. That would let us use the exercise-to-cholesterol connection instead of leaving it behind an unresolved “if.”
Working the answers
- A
A study can investigate a relationship and still report incorrect data. Knowing its topic doesn't establish that its findings are right. A therefore leaves the stated condition unresolved: we still don't know that moderate exercise lowers cholesterol.
- B
Saying a blockage can be prevented doesn't tell us that moderate exercise reduces its risk. Prevention might be possible through some other means. Also, the argument's conclusion is about lowering a risk, which doesn't have to mean eliminating it entirely. B doesn't supply the missing exercise connection.
- C
This stays within the later part of the reasoning, linking lower cholesterol with a lower risk of arterial blockage. The passage already gives us a route from lower cholesterol through reduced hardening risk to reduced clot-blockage risk. Even granting C, we still need to establish that exercise lowers cholesterol. Repeating a later connection doesn't supply the missing first one.
- DCorrect
We were told that if the reported data are correct, moderate exercise lowers blood cholesterol. D confirms that condition, so we can now use the result.
Follow it through: moderate exercise lowers cholesterol; lowering cholesterol lowers the risk of hardening of the arteries; lowering that risk lowers the risk of blockage due to blood clots. That reaches the conclusion about moderate exercise. The answer doesn't have to add another medical relationship because the passage already supplied the relationships we need. It has to let us use the one that was stated conditionally.
- E
This connects hardening of the arteries with clot-blockage risk. It still tells us nothing about whether moderate exercise lowers cholesterol or whether the study's data are correct. We could accept E while the unresolved condition remained unresolved, so it wouldn't complete the proof.
More Sufficient Assumption questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Sufficient Assumption questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.