PrepTest 147, Section 4, Question 6
Scientist: Laboratory animals have access to ample food,(57 more words not shown)
The scientist's argument requires assuming(5 more words not shown)
- ALaboratory animals are(14 more words not shown)
- BLaboratory conditions that(15 more words not shown)
- CIt is not(18 more words not shown)
- DSome animal studies(17 more words not shown)
- EWhen provided with(17 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
If the animals were overfed before the experiment, what does restricting their food show? It might show a benefit from correcting an unhealthy starting point, rather than the same benefit for animals that were healthy to begin with. That makes the scientist's concern about the starting conditions worth examining.
Still, does past overfeeding automatically make an animal unsuitable for research forever? No such rule is given. We need to identify what this argument actually depends on, not invent a sweeping rule about every animal's history.
What we’re looking for
There is a more basic question, too: are ample food and little exercise unhealthy? Access to food doesn't by itself tell us how much an animal eats. The scientist moves from those laboratory conditions to a concern about assuming the animals are healthy. For the required assumption, keep that connection in view.
Working the answers
- A
A careful diet and plenty of exercise needn't guarantee health. An animal might still have an illness or be under severe stress. More importantly, the argument doesn't offer a recipe that ensures healthy animals; it questions whether the stated laboratory conditions could undermine that assumption. A promises more than the reasoning requires.
- BCorrect
These conditions can be unhealthy. If ample food and little exercise could never harm the animals' health, citing those conditions wouldn't support the scientist's concern about assuming healthy subjects. B supplies that missing connection.
I initially focused on how earlier overfeeding might affect the interpretation of a later experiment. B addresses the simpler step underneath that concern. Notice its modest wording: the conditions can be unhealthy. We don't need every laboratory animal to be unhealthy, or every study using one to be worthless.
- C
Similar conditions outside a laboratory wouldn't establish that the laboratory animals are healthy. Wild animals could also experience unhealthy conditions. The scientist's concern doesn't depend on whether ample food and little exercise are common or unusual outside the lab.
- D
Some studies might account for those differences, or none might. Either way, the scientist could still argue that the stated conditions can skew research that assumes healthy subjects. We don't need evidence that some researchers have already taken corrective steps to identify the possible problem.
- E
A stable eating pattern doesn't tell us whether the amount eaten is healthy. Animals could eat a similar amount every day and still be overfed or adequately fed. E also addresses unrestricted access over time, while the passage says ample food. Neither detail supplies the missing connection between the laboratory conditions and possible poor health.
More Necessary Assumption questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Necessary Assumption questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.