October 2010 LSAT Section 3 Question 3

Commentator: If a political administration is both economically successful and successful at protecting individual li...

CoralEmi on November 3, 2019

Question 7 answer

I understand everything in question 7 from the conclusion and the premise and also to why all the other answers are incorrect but I cannot understand the actual answer B can someone break it down for me?

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Skylar on November 3, 2019

@CoralEmi Happy to help!

We are asked to identify the role that the claim "It is unlikely that the world will ever be free of disease" plays in the overall argument.

(B) states, "It is a conclusion for which a description of the responses of microorganisms to the medicines designed to cure the diseases they cause is offered as support."

This can be broken down into two parts:
(1) Role played in argument: Conclusion
(2) Support offered: Responses of microorganisms to the medicines designed to cure the diseases they cause

As we observed in our breakdown of the passage, the sentence "It is unlikely that the world will ever be free of disease" is a conclusion. In the first part of (B), it is correctly identified as such. The premises identified in the passage discuss the predictable way in which microorganisms react to medicine by evolving immunities and retaining their infecting power. In the second part of (B), this premise is correctly summarized as "the responses of microorganisms to the medicines designed to cure the diseases they cause." Since a premise is something that supports a conclusion, it can accurately be said that this premise is "offered as support" for the conclusion.

Does this make sense? Please let us know if you have any additional questions.