If one of the effects of a genetic mutation makes a substantial contribution to the survival of the species, then, an...

BradG March 29, 2019

Explain why B isn't right

B) "All of the effects" of some mutations contribute substantially to the survival of the species. The passages states that when ONE of the effects makes a contribution ONLY THEN will it be favored. Here, it states that hypothetically "ALL of the effects" contribute. Since this states "ALL" but not "ONE" doesn't that directly contradict the passage? I got it right, because E CLEARLY contradicts the passage. But I also feel this answer contradicts the passage, just not as clearly. While I know there is only one true correct answer to each question, I don't want to be selecting answers because I feel they are MORE true. Only one is truly correct and there has to be a valid reason why the other is wrong.

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mg123 October 4, 2019

I was wondering the same thing about B. Why wouldn't B be correct? What is a good strategy for a question like this?

shunhe May 3, 2020

Hi @BradG and @mg123,

Thanks for the question! First, as a general point, it’s definitely good to note as you did that you should be looking for the BEST answer. Sometimes, more than one answer may seem adequate or ok, but you have to compare them and pick the best one on the LSAT.

Now, as to (B): it tells us that all the effects of some genetic mutations contribute substantially to the survival of a species. (B) certainly could be true because we’re not told that “if ONLY one of the effects of a genetic mutation makes a substantial contribution…,” we’re told that “if one of the effects…” And under ordinary language usage, it’s much more likely that that refers to “if at least one of the effects.” So if all of the effects of some genetic mutations contribute substantially, then trivially, one of its effects make a substantial contribution, since all of them do, so just pick one of them and that one is making a substantial contribution. Picking (B) relies on a somewhat unnatural interpretation of the sentence, and as you noted, (E) is clearly a much better answer. (B) might fly if all the other ones clearly could be true, but (E) clearly contradicts.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.