June 2003 LSAT Section 1 Question 10

Charlene: Environmental cleanup increasingly relies on microorganisms to metabolize pollutants. This has its limit...

jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com on April 11, 2020

I picked E ) active and it was wrong. Why? Thanks

Hi I picked E) active because I thought the two disagree as to what constitute an active plant. Why is E) active wrong? Thanks

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Skylar on April 13, 2020

@jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com, happy to help!

Charlene states that "microbes become less active when a region's temperature drops below normal." Olaf disagrees with this, citing research that shows microbes in Arctic regions and subtropical regions ate at nearly the same rate.

We are asked to identify the term that Olaf's response indicates he misinterprets.

(B) "normal" is the correct answer. Charlene says that microbe activity decreases when a region's temperature drops below normal. Here, Charlene is using the term "normal" to indicate how changes in the temperature of a specific region affect microbes. In other words, Charlene uses "normal" to mean the regular temperature of that specific place. However, Olaf responds by comparing activity in two regions with drastically different regular temperatures. Therefore, Olaf is not using "normal" to refer to the typical temperatures in each individual region but instead to an overall average temperature.

(E) "active" is incorrect because there does not appear to be disagreement regarding the use of this term. Microbes being active are discussed by Charlene as metabolizing pollutants and by Olaf as eating oil. These refer to the same use of the term "active."

Does that make sense? Please let us know if you have any other questions!