Passage Discussion

[agersh144]

Can someone please break down this passage for us. I've done about every LSAT 1-68 and this one I still simply cannot comprehend the information about the egg-timeline and flight and its interaction with all the scientific jargon simply will not compute in my brain. I got 168 on this PT in spite of getting 4 wrong on this passage and 7 wrong on RC overall. Please deconstruct this passage and explain how you would attack a passage like this on test and hit the answers with confidence. Half way through the passage my head was spinning and I did not have the foggiest idea what the heck the passage was about (with the exception of the 1st paragraph which I was able to comprehend -- other than that I knew that the water bug was an example but it was really just very difficult for me to understand what overwintering broods and macropterous and dimorphism and morphology had to do with the three major areas of adaptive responses). Thanks!

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Thanks for bringing this one to the forum, I personally love this passage!

Lets start with the PASSAGE MAP:

P1: Three basic adaptive responses are introduced and two of them are contrasted (regulatory and acclimatory).

P2: The third adaptive response (developmental) is distinguished from the other two, and an example of it is provided.
**Important to remember that Overwinter Generation = big wings, Summer Generation = dimorphic (big wings and small wings depending on temperature that eggs are exposed to; warm air = big wings, cold air = small wings).

P3: Theory about effects of air temperature on wing development confirmed in lab experiments.

This is a descriptive passage, meaning the author is not trying to convince us of something. Therefore we cannot build a SCALE to track the various arguments. The PASSAGE MAP is going to be the main tool we use to identify where in the passage is the text we need to confirm the details tested in the questions.

Hope that helps!

[BarryM800]

I'm quite confused about the sentence starting line 55: "Eggs laid by the overwintering adults in the spring, which develop into the summer generation of adults, are formed in early autumn and early spring." The sentence started with "eggs laid by the overwintering adults in the spring," how can they be formed both in early autumn and early spring? I thought the overwinter generation's eggs were formed in early spring only. Thanks!

[Misti Duvall]

I'm quite confused about the sentence starting line 55: "Eggs laid by the overwintering adults in the spring, which develop into the summer generation of adults, are formed in early autumn and early spring." The sentence started with "eggs laid by the overwintering adults in the spring," how can they be formed both in early autumn and early spring? I thought the overwinter generation's eggs were formed in early spring only. Thanks!

This passage is tough! Lots of intricate detail. I THINK the key to the sentence you've quoted is the difference between "formed" and "laid." It seems like it's possible for the eggs to form in the autumn and not be laid until spring.

That said, I'm not 100% sure I'm right, and if I were reading this on test day, I would move on anyway. It's most important to understand the bigger picture, and the two different kinds of bugs as noted in the example passage map above, than it is to understand every detail.

Hope this helps.