PrepTest 131, Section 1, Question 3
In some places, iceberg lilies are the mainstay(44 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(13 more words not shown)
- AWhen grizzly bears(13 more words not shown)
- BIceberg lilies produce(16 more words not shown)
- CA significantly smaller(20 more words not shown)
- DThe geographic regions(14 more words not shown)
- EIceberg lilies contain(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The bears are tearing up the lilies and eating their bulbs. That sounds bad for the lilies. Yet we are told that these feeding habits actually help the lilies survive. How can destroying so many individual plants benefit the lilies overall?
One possibility is that the bears spread the lilies' seeds while foraging. If uprooting plants helped new ones grow elsewhere, that might explain a benefit alongside the damage. That is a prediction to look for, not something the passage has established.
What we’re looking for
The discrepancy question asks us to supply a connection of that kind. We already understand why foraging destroys plants. We need to see how the feeding habits could also promote their survival.
Working the answers
- A
Killing even more lilies than the bears eat makes the destructive side clearer. It still leaves us asking why this destruction helps the lilies survive. A adds damage without explaining any benefit.
- BCorrect
This offers a different explanation from seed spreading: too many lilies can exhaust the resources they need. Left undisturbed, they produce so many offspring that their own growth threatens their survival.
The bears reduce that overcrowding by destroying some plants. Fewer lilies are left competing for the same resources, which can help the remaining plants survive. The death of individual lilies can therefore benefit the population. That connects the apparently harmful feeding to the benefit we were asked to explain.
- C
Producing fewer flowers in fields where bears forage fits the fact that bears destroy lilies. It does not explain why the feeding habits promote survival. Fewer flowers might initially make the benefit seem even more puzzling.
- D
This places bears and many lilies in the same regions, but it does not explain what the bears do to help the plants. Perhaps the bears are there because there are so many lilies to eat. Coexistence by itself does not show how destructive feeding promotes survival.
- E
Nutrients in the lilies can explain why eating them is good for bears. Our puzzle runs in the other direction: why is being eaten by bears good for the lilies? E does not supply that benefit.
More Paradox questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Paradox questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.