Unplugged Practice Test: Logical Reasoning Set 2, Question 3 (Strengthen)
Taking the test? Finish it first. This page shows the answer.
- Strengthen questions ask which new fact most supports the argument.
- Find the gap the argument leaves open, then look for the choice that closes it.
- Every question on this test is original, written to the same logical skeletons as real questions, and Steve checked every one himself before release.
The question
Orchard consultant: The slow drop in fruit yield that growers blame on the aging of their apple trees is really the built-up injury left by years of mechanical harvesting. Surveys of orchards in a few isolated upland valleys support this. Picking in those valleys has always been done by hand, and yields there hold steady well past the age at which trees elsewhere are pulled out and replaced.
3. The consultant's argument would be most strengthened by which one of the following, if true?
- (A)Farming manuals written centuries ago advised growers to replace apple trees once the trees reached a fixed age.
- (B)Growers who pick their fruit by hand generally spend a good many more hours per acre during the harvest season than growers who use machinery.
- (C)A falling yield makes it harder for the owner of an older orchard to hold on to contracts with regional distributors.
- (D)Crews running harvesting machinery rarely slow the equipment on uneven ground unless the orchard's owner insists on it.
- (E)Upland orchards that leased harvesting machinery for a few seasons now show steeper yield decline than neighboring orchards that never did.
EWhy (E) is correct
(E) strengthens the same way the upland comparison already does, by pinning the yield drop to machinery within similar orchards. If upland orchards that leased harvesting machinery for only a few seasons already show a steeper decline than neighboring upland orchards that never used it, then it's the machinery, not simply age, tracking the yield loss.
Why the other answers are wrong
AWhy (A) is wrong
(A) old farming advice to replace trees at a fixed age says nothing about what causes the decline, so it's beside the point.
BWhy (B) is wrong
(B) that hand-picking takes more hours per acre is a fact about labor, not about whether machinery injures the trees.
CWhy (C) is wrong
(C) that a falling yield hurts a grower's distributor contracts is a consequence of the decline, not a cause of it.
DWhy (D) is wrong
(D) that crews rarely slow their equipment on uneven ground unless told to is about crew behavior, never about the years-long injury the consultant claims machinery leaves behind.
Common questions
What type of question is this?
Strengthen. Strengthen questions ask which new fact most supports the argument.
How do I get better at Strengthen questions?
Find the gap the argument leaves open, then look for the choice that closes it. The free LSAT cheat sheet lists the wrong-answer patterns to watch for on every type.
