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Course: LSAT > Unit 1

Lesson 10: Reading Comprehension - Worked Examples

Inferences about info | Social science passage | Wool

Watch a demonstration of one way to approach an Inferences about Info question on a social science reading passage on the LSAT. Created by Dave Travis.

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Video transcript

- [Teacher] The passage most strongly suggests that which one of the following would be a function of the research company proposed for New Zealand in the final paragraph? So, we're given a place to find our answer. We're talking about the research company that the author proposes. And it most strongly suggests question means that the answer isn't going to be explicitly there in the passage, but it's gonna be strongly suggested. So, it makes sense for us to go back up and remind ourselves, you know, what the author is recommending about this research company. So, it's all right in this paragraph here. The commercial genetic research company which would concentrate on genetic selection for crossbreeding sheep, but not on the artificial manipulation of genetic material in individual sheep. So, okay, that specifically says what the genetic research company was meant to do according to the author. So, let's see if we can the answer right there. A, to develop more-productive varieties of sheep by introducing genes from other organisms into, other organisms, frankensheep. No, that's definitely not right, let's get rid of that. B, to concentrate on conducting basic genetic research that could have applications in various areas of agriculture. You know, conducting basic research, yes. But applications in various areas of agriculture, no. We just heard about the author focusing on the wool industry. C, to encourage wool growers to focus on developing other wool varieties as an alternative to growing strong wool. Okay, so, other wool varieties. We talked about sort of like strengthening the gene pool of the sheep by cross-breeding the best, most productive sheep. I'm not sure that means producing different wool varieties, but I'll leave that one in for now. D, to create a composite profile of optimal physical traits for sheep based on characteristics of the sheep that produce the most valuable wool. Okay, so we do like the characteristics of the sheep that produce the most valuable wool, so this sounds pretty good. It doesn't involve like real genetic, you know, genetic manipulation. Okay, E, to oversee the distribution of funds among the various programs intended to increase the efficiency of wool processing. So, efficiency of wool processing is something that the author was trying to get the industry to move away from, so you know, processing is what makes that wrong. That's in the third paragraph, that's not right. Okay, so what do we have left, we have C and we have D. And again, we're not making different wool varieties. If we wanna be doubly sure about D, we can just go up and remind ourselves, you know, read a little bit more of that paragraph. This part of the paragraph says that you know, we're trying to improve the genetics. The best of New Zealand sheep produce wool worth significantly more than the wool of the country's average sheep and these superior sheep, 'cause we're lookin' for the best sheep can be identified and kept as breeding stock. So we need to figure out like what is a superior sheep? How do we decide, you know, which sheep are superior and which are inferior? But, it seems like superiority versus inferiority is about like optimizing the physical traits of the sheep based on the most valuable wool. This looks really good. It's not explicitly said, but again this question is implicit because it's a strong suggestion, not, you know, explicit statement, so here's our answer, D.