Q19 - Lathyrism, a debilitating neurological disorder

[lorraineogan]

I chose A, but I think it was due to increasing pressure from timed conditions. So I didn't have a chance to read and think through it as thoughtfully.

Reading it a second time during review, I chose the correct answer choice, C.

I want to make sure my reasoning is correct.

A is wrong because nothing in the stimulus explicitly states that the physiology of rats is different from domestic animals. It is a possibility as to why rats did not produce the same symptoms, but the stimulus never confirms it. I chose this answer choice under the pressure of the timed conditions.

B is wrong because the stimulus never mentions the amount of Lathyrus sativus the rats consumed.

C is correct because domestic animals get the disorder, but rats do not. We can infer that not all animals get the disorder.

D also tries to play with an unwary test taker. This cannot be inferred from the stimulus, it's too broad of a statement for what is specifically stated in the stimulus.

E is another possibility as to why the rats did not get the disorder, but it is not supported by the stimulus.

Thanks for checking my reasoning!

[tommywallach]

Hey Lorraine,

I think you did well here, but one quick thing. When explaining why an answer choice is wrong, always do your best to say more than "the passage didn't say this." Notice that was your explanation for most of the wrong answers here. It's not that you're wrong, per se, but that this explanation will apply to every wrong answer on an inference question. By the way, I think you're actually on top of these in your head, but always make the effort to draw out your thinking as much as possible.

So, to add add a few more details:

(A) goes too far. The physiological difference doesn't have to be radically different; it could just be a little different. Even one tiny thing could make the difference in terms of this disease.

(B) is out of scope for the reason you said. We don't know anything about how much Lathyrus the rats consumed versus the amount the domestic animals consumed.

(C) CORRECT for the reason you said.

(D) We know that a lot of domestic animals have the disease, and rats don't seem to get it. That leaves all the other animals on the planet (and there are way more non-domestic animals then domestic animals).

(E) is very tricky, because we know that rats didn't the disease in lab conditions. However, we don't know if other animals might get the disease in lab conditions (such as domestic animals), so we can't infer anything generally about lab conditions.

Good luck!

-t