November 2019 LSAT Section 4 Question 23

Researcher: Consumption of turmeric, a basic ingredient in curry dishes, probably slows cognitive decline. Our resear...

Dberbari22 on July 8, 2020

Why E?

I am very confused with this question. Isn't E assuming that the more turmeric, the better the results? For example, couldn't an argument be made that the benefits of turmeric stop at a certain point (i.e after half a teaspoon, there are no longer benefits), or are best when just a small amount of it is consumed. So isn't E only appropriate if we assume that the amount of turmeric matters (something that is not supported). Thank you in advance!

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shunhe on July 9, 2020

Hi @Dberbari22,

Thanks for the question! You’re right that answer choice (E) assumes that the more turmeric the merrier; however, this isn’t an outrageous assumption to make given this stimulus. I don’t think that this is a super shining model example of an LSAT question/correct answer for a couple of reasons (since (E) also assumes that elderly Singapore residents of Indian ethnicity are eating Indian curries and not other curries), but (E) is definitely better than the other answer choices out there. The main idea is that the elderly Singapore residents of Indian ethnicity are getting more turmeric, and then that more turmeric is better. Even if it’s up to a certain point, we can’t just assume that certain point was already hit by the basic curries. So the people eating the most turmeric are having the highest cognitive functions, and that strengthens the conclusion, making (E) the correct answer.

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