Q17

[ohthatpatrick]

Since the question wants to know the relationship of the 3rd to the 2nd paragraph, we should carefully read the transitional sentences (the last sentence of the 2nd P and the first couple sentences of the 3rd P) to get a sense of how the paragraphs are related.

The 2nd paragraph described Rita's discovery of NGF. The 3rd paragraph describes what happened after that: many other cell-growth factors were discovered; more was learned about NGF.

We should probably anticipate a correct answer that says "the 3rd paragraph showed the historical/scientific aftermath of Rita's discovery".

1st pass:

A) the later work described in the 3rd paragraph expanded on Rita's work, it wasn't an effort to verify it

B) the later work did not undermine Rita's work; it added to her discovery.

C) this looks tempting, since it seemingly describes where science went with Rita's discovery. Keep it.

D) this also looks tempting for the same reason. Keep it.

E) the 3rd paragraph doesn't describe new experimental procedures and doesn't indicate that experimental procedures in the 2nd paragraph were rendered obsolete.

So, down to (C) and (D). They both relate to "things we learned AFTER Rita's initial discovery".

Their difference is that (C) focuses on "other stuff we learned about NGF", whereas (D) focuses on "other growth factors besides NGF".

If we look again at the last paragraph, we see that only the 1st sentence alludes to discovering other growth factors besides NGF. The rest of that paragraph is dedicated to elaborating on the function/purpose/whereabouts of NGF.

So (C) is the better, and correct, answer.

[AndyC828]

Good explanation.

A frustrating aspect of many LSAT questions on science topic is, those questions sometimes use words or phrase statements in a way that are super uncomfortable for readers who are actually from science background. Thus the more you know, the easier to be misled.

This question is another example of these. As a matter of fact, different animals have their own NGFs, which are all terms NGFs, and they are analogous to each other. In the second paragraph, mouse NGF was discovered. Therefore by stating 'substances analogous to the substance (mouse NGF) discussed in the second paragraph', it could mean other NGFs, such as human NGF, rabit NGF etc. Since the rest of third paragraph keeps talking about NGFs, this altogether makes D equally attempting as C.