September 2009 LSAT Section 5 Question 9

Two months ago a major shipment of pythons arrived from Africa, resulting in a great number of inexpensive pythons in...

kens on June 21, 2020

September 2009 SEC 5 Q9

How can we be sure that liver disease in North-American pythons will not be detected and treated? And conclude that some "will" die of the disease? Thanks in advance!

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shunhe on June 28, 2020

Hi @kenken,

Thanks for the question! So we know that the pythons “will” die because we’re told this in the last sentence of the stimulus; ALL pythons die within six months of contracting the disease. Now, I suppose we can’t be 100% certain that the liver disease in the pythons won’t be detected and treated, but a couple of things. First, (A) is still definitely better than the other answer choices. Second, a lot of hints in the stimulus suggest that this isn’t going to happen. We’re told that the disease is “difficult to detect.” We’re also told that there are “a great number” of these pythons scattered in pet stores, so it’s going to be hard to track them all down and cure them. And the shipment came two months ago, which would mean people would only have four months to find and treat them all. It’s definitely not at all a stretch to say that at least “some” (meaning, at least one) python appear fine now, but will die within six months because of the liver disease.

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