Q19

[LSAT-Chang]

I chose (E) for this because I thought (B) was too strong... I don't see anything wrong with (E) since passage B does seem to be more cautious in claiming anything in regards to the animals behavior whereas passage A is certain that animals don't have conscious intention.... I am so confused...

[ohthatpatrick]

Another tough "down to 2".

You pinpointed the questionable language in (B). "Disapproving"? Can we support that?

I didn't hear you raise the red flag for (E), but I would be worried about supporting "refusal to commit itself to ANY positions".

I would support "disapproving" by re-reading lines 53-end of passage B. The author is definitely going against the views of many researchers and theorists. In the 2nd paragraph of B, line 33 says "it is commonly stated" and line 45 says "widely believed".

The opinions in the 2nd paragraph are not the author's, but rather he is introducing them so that in the 3rd paragraph he can make his objection.

(This is a common pattern in LR and RC ... phrases like line 33 and line 45 almost always eventually lead into "but/yet/however they're wrong")

So since the last paragraph definitely argues against the views in the 2nd paragraph, we could say that the author is disapproving of the the views expressed in the 2nd paragraph.

'Disapproving' isn't actually as strong as it sounds. It's not "scornful", "angry", etc. It just means "thumbs down".

Meanwhile, to support (E) I would look to see whether I could make peace with the author of Psg. B "refusing to commit to any position".

The last sentence of Psg. B (starting at line 57), provides us with the author's commitment to a position.

He says that "recent research" "calls into question" the common assumptions made by other researchers.

If he said that recent or future research MAY call into question common assumptions, then he would truly be avoiding any position until more research was done.

Instead, he feels that research already done has already called into question the common assumptions about human vs. animal communication.

I certainly sympathize with the fact that it "feels" like he's saying: who knows, it may turn out that animals have more cognition than we think.

And that sentiment feels like a match for (E). But (E) is so strongly worded, that the author "refuses to commit to ANY position" that it is contradicted by the opinion expressed in the final sentence of Psg. B.

Just like in #18, the correct answer here also reinforces the fundamental relationship between these two passages:
A - human communication is different from non-human communication
vs.
B - people who think human communication is different are making circular arguments and being undermined by recent research.

Keep the good questions comin'.

[kopoku.08]

what about answer choice D? it came down to B and D for me and I chose D.

[ohthatpatrick]

Can you find any textual support for picking (D)? What line reference in psg. B gives us license to believe that author is more supportive of ongoing research than the author of psg. A?

My suspicion is that you like (D) because of the last sentence of psg. B. I think that sentence makes the author of psg. B sound eager that ongoing research may lead to the "humans are special" interpretation of communication becoming more and more debunked.

But that's not the same thing as saying we know the author of B is more supportive of research than is the author of A.

The author of A uses several research findings to make his point about communication, so it seems like he is also quite interested/supportive of ongoing research.

In the end, they both refer to research into the communication habits of animals, so what textual evidence do we have to support that one author is MORE supportive than the other?

Finally, in a big-picture way, would (D) be addressing anything interesting/significant about how the central argument of psg. A relates to the central argument of psg. B?

To me, it wouldn't. The chief difference was that psg. A thought "humans are special" and psg. B thought "humans aren't necessarily special, you're just assuming they are".

That's another reason that (B) seems more likely the credited response.

Hope this helps.

[jacobjsohn]

The LSAC really needs to find better passages. From lines 56 to end is ONE sentence. No one should have to suffer through such a convoluted sentence like that. Plus, that's not good writing.

Anyway, I ended up choosing B because I thought E was too strong. There was no indication that the writer in passage B refused to commit to ANY positions.

[jewels0602]

I didn't choose B because the author of passage B mentions recent research in the last paragraph which has a very approving tone to it-- also the fact that answer choice B mentions "authors writing on same general topic" seems to cover the topic of recent research which is "animal communication and human language" (lines 57-58)...
SO, essentially, I thought this was not completely contradictory, because the author is disapproving of the authors mentioned in first couple paragraphs, but too strong (degree issue) when it says that it's disapproving of authors (period). If the answer choice had said "disapproving of the general approach taken by others writing on the same general topic" or "disapproving... of approach taken by some others writing.." I would've chosen B in a heartbeat

I instead chose D because 1) it seemed the best out all other choices and 2) it seemed like the author of passage A was more matter-of-fact in the presentation; esp. if you read the last sentence of the passage, it seems very confirmative of the overall argument in a way that makes it seem like the issue is more or less settled with the evidence presented.

In trying to understand this logic for future use, is the answer B also because it encapsulates the overall theme of passage B? Because the question is asking about difference in overall passages, it makes more sense to just compare the overall points of passage?? For example, the overlap in authors talked about in passage A and B are the ones the author in passage B straight-forwardly is disapproving towards, so with the overlap in mind, B makes more sense??

Can someone please clear this up for me, especially addressing in the first paragraph... thanks...

[ohthatpatrick]

You are definitely correct about part of why (B) is a smarter answer. LSAT does want to reward the main point / purpose, when it comes to these "how does psg A relate to psg B" questions.

If you correctly understood that psg B was essentially hatin' on the sort of stuff psg A was saying, then picking an answer that reinforces that is a good move.

The central relationship between the two passages was NOT who was more optimistic about science's ability to answer questions (A), who was more open-minded about accepting apparently conflicting positions (C), who was more
supportive of ongoing research (D) or who was more willing to commit to a position (E).

In order to pick (D), we still need positive reinforcement via line references. We can't just pick it because it doesn't seem wrong and might be true, through indirect speculation.

As I said in my earlier post, we might say psg B is more EAGER to see the results of new research, as it might bolster his counterargument. However, they're both scientists or at least science writers. They both support research. Scientists, unlike politicians, aren't as afraid of finding out they're wrong when research suggests otherwise.

I feel you, when it comes to (B) sounding like a bit of a sweeping indictment.

However, "disapproving of the approach taken by others" doesn't mean "disapproving of the approach taken by ALL others".

(B) has fuzzy, indeterminate scope. It COULD mean "all others writing on the topic", but it could also mean "some others writing on the topic".

(E), meanwhile, was categorical. It said ANY positions.

At one point, in analyzing (B), I was asking myself, "Can we even justify the plural word 'OTHERS'? Did psg B pretty much just hate on psg A?"

But in searching for support for that, I made peace with it.

The first paragraph of psg B says that "many scientists ... [think that animal communication] are rigid responses to stimuli, whereas human language is creative".

Line 34, "It is commonly stated that ..."

Line 45, "conscious intention is widely believed to be uniquely human"

Line 53, "THESE arguments are circular"

There have actually been several comparative passages on LSATs that take this form:
Psg A makes an argument, sounding neutral and authoritative.
Psg B basically says that "the sort of people who make arguments that sound like psg A" are idiots, have a hidden agenda, are confused, etc. (Check out test 55, purple loosestrife psg.)

Hope this helps.