Atrens: An early entomologist observed ants carryingparticles to neighboring ... ...

Atrens’s conclusion follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?
(A) Ant societies do not interact in all the same ways that human societies interact.
(B) ...
(C) ...
(D) ...
(E) ...

*This question is included in Free Complete Section: LR-B, June '07 LSAT

 
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Posted: 01/24/2012 11:17
I am having trouble understanding why choice C is the correct answer. I am a bit confused
 
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Posted: 01/24/2012 11:18
It is for question 5.. The ant dumping site
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Posted: 07/08/2015 11:03
Reply:
Contributor
 
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Posted: 01/24/2012 11:58
Melissa,
A = particles is food, ants social and dispatching food
B = particles is waste, ants anti-social and dumping waste(ergo possible caca)
Atrens' conclusion is 'the early entomologist is wrong'

Atrens can only make that conclusion logically if he assumes that 'the further research including their findings' is actually true and assuming they are, the particles have to be waste i.o. food in order to call it 'their dumping site' and that make 'the early entomologist wrong.'

Niels
 
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Posted: 01/25/2012 01:44
Yeah, Niels has a good take on this one.

Here's what we know:

Premise 1: The ants were carrying particles to their neighbor's nest
Premise 2: The entomologist inferred that the ants were bringing food to their neighbors
Premise 3: The particles the ants were bringing to their neighbors were from their own colony’s dumping site

Missing Premise: ???

Conclusion: the entomologist is wrong (the ants were not actually bringing food to their neighbors)

So, what's required in order to draw the conclusion? Well, we know that the ants are bringing particles to their neighbor's nest. And we know that the particles are coming from the ants' dump site. In order to conclude that the ants are NOT bringing food to their neighbors, we'd have to assume that the particles they are bringing over from the dump site are NOT food.

Choice (C) gives us what we're looking for.

Does this make sense? If it's still confusing, let me know.
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Posted: 01/18/2013 20:34
Thanks Brendan, the explanation was very clear.
 
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Posted: 07/04/2012 01:49
The last explanation was perfect, thanks
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Posted: 07/27/2012 14:35
I agree
Arcadia
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Posted: 08/01/2012 19:35
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Posted: 05/20/2013 11:08
Why isn't it E? Thank you
Contributor
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Posted: 05/20/2013 14:25
To give an abstraction of reality:
Someone may retract an earlier conclusion based on new information, while earlier certainty reduces, maybe all the way to zero but the final conclusion is in rare cases equal to the first conclusion after all...

This to say, a retraction of an earlier conclusion doesn't imply the wrong conclusion. You might know a few cases of law involving witnesses with suspects of a particular type...

So the bottom line here is that E, still needs C to determine the era.ier conclusion is wrong.

Niels
 
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Posted: 06/18/2013 14:47
Wow such in depth analysis.

I chose C because if Atren concluded that if the ants carried food (particles) to the neighbors, then the particles must be food.

If the particles are not food, then Atrens is wrong.

There is still no way to conclude that it is a dumping site based the information given, unless we speculate that "later discoveries" must be absolutely true and correct.