One good clue as to which geographical regions an ancient relic was mo

Question

One good clue as to which geographical regions an ancient relic was moved through in the past involves the analysis of pollen that clings to the surface of the relic. A relic is linked to a geographical area by the identification of pollen from plants that are known to have been unique to that area.

Which one of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the reliability of the method described above?

(A) Pollens are often transported from one region to another by wind or human movement.

(B) There are several less complicated methods of determining the history of the movement of an object than the analysis and identification of pollen.

(C) Many types of pollen were common to several geographical regions in the ancient world.

(D) Data are scarce as to the geographical distribution of the pollens of many ancient plants.

(E) Pollen analysis is a painstaking process that is also expensive to conduct.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

EXPLANATION FROM Fox LSAT

Hmm. This sounds like some CSI forensic science stuff. I wonder if we can pretend we’re working on a murder case in order to answer the question. What if instead of “ancient relic” we were talking about a murder weapon? What if the prosecutor had said, “We know this gun has been at the defendant’s remote mountain cabin because the gun has traces of pollen from trees that grow  only  around the defendant’s cabin”? What do you think? Guilty?

Please tell me you’re not nodding along with the prosecutor right now, because the prosecutor is completely full of ****. Just because the trees don’t move around doesn’t mean the  pollen  doesn’t move around. It’s conceivable that the entire  world  is covered with pollen from a tree that only lives on one particular mountain in Africa. Even if you think that’s far-fetched, it’s certainly not impossible. Doesn’t a tree emit, like, a bazillion pieces of pollen every day? And isn’t that **** essentially weightless? Can’t pollen fly thousands of miles on the wind, float on top of the ocean, be transmitted by insects, birds, and other animals, etcetera etcetera? Are there any allergy sufferers on the jury? Do you think  they  are going to buy the idea that pollen pretty much stays in a fixed geographical area? I don’t think the prosecutor can possibly win here—I think there  must  be reasonable doubt if pollen is your only evidence.

Back to the question. We’re asked to “cast doubt” on the pollen analysis method, and I’m guessing that we’ve already done a decent job of it. Our “Wait, your evidence is  pollen ?! You’ve got to be **** with me, that **** gets everywhere!” defense is probably a winner here.

A) Boom. We predicted wind, but we forgot about humans. How do we know that the dirty cops didn’t sprinkle pollen on the gun before putting it in the evidence locker? Great answer. This isn’t what we predicted, but it has the same devastating effect as what we predicted.

B) Not a chance. Just because there are  better  methods of doing something doesn’t mean that a  worse  method doesn’t also work. Example: Jump out of an airplane at 40,000 feet, with a parachute made of bricks, and you will definitely kill yourself. Jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge is a worse method for killing yourself because sometimes people survive both the fall and the sharks—and then have to live with their horrifying injuries—but the method does, generally, work.

C) This is irrelevant, because the facts are only about a pollen or pollens that were known to have been unique to a specific area. This answer just doesn’t apply.

D) Irrelevant. Apparently we have enough data to conclude that this pollen or pollens were linked to a certain geographical area. The fact that we wouldn’t be able to do the same analysis for “many types of pollen” doesn’t in any way weaken our logic.

E) Irrelevant. Just because something is expensive and painstaking doesn’t mean it’s not logically sound.

Our answer is A, because it introduces reasonable doubt.

Nidzo · Answer

(A) This could hamper with accuracy, given that now unique pollens could be found in locations where the plant they come from cannot be found.  Correct

(B) The complexity is not at question in the argument.  Incorrect

(C) The author states that the pollen used in the method are unique to certain areas, which means that they do not rely on plants which were found in several locations.  Incorrect

(D) The author states that pollen of plants that are known are used, which makes this choice irrelevant.  Incorrect

(E) Irrelevant to the argument. The cost and how difficult of a process it is are not going to call into question whether the method used is sound.  Incorrect

ANSWER A

100mitra · Answer

One good clue as to which 
 geographical regions  an ancient relic was moved through in the past 
 involves the analysis of pollen  that clings to the surface of the relic. 
A relic is linked to a  geographical area by the identification of pollen  
from plants that are known to have been  unique to that area .

Assumption:  Only one method is put on lot of value for Pollen movement.

Which one of the following, if true, casts the  most doubt on the reliability of the method  described above?

(A) Pollens are often transported from one region to another by wind or human movement.
 Correct :  this raise doubt to argument on method described and logically counter

(B) There are several less complicated methods of determining 
the history of the movement of an object than 
the analysis and identification of pollen.
 Wrong:  adds addition information, not present in Passage, makes it out of scope.

(C) Many types of pollen were common to several geographical regions in the ancient world.
 Wrong:  Such information not present in passage to conclude

(D) Data are scarce as to the geographical distribution of the pollens of many ancient plants.
 Wrong:  data are scares lead to accounting, and facts which is not present in Passage.

(E) Pollen analysis is a painstaking process that is also expensive to conduct
 Wrong:  compares wrongly to identify process with expensive more or less

sivatx2 · Answer

1. Relic is moved to different region, in the past. 
2. Using pollen on the relic we can identify where the relic moved to different places --> conclusion
3. Pollens are unique to a specific place.

We need to identify a statement which weakens the conclusion:
1. We cannot correctly identify the places the relic moved to.

(A) Pollens are often transported from one region to another by wind or human movement. 
 If by wind or by human who travelled to different place & touched the relic, then the pollen sticks to the relic even though the relic did not move to different places. Keep.

(B) There are several less complicated methods of determining the history of the movement of an object than the analysis and identification of pollen. 
 Methods are irrelevant to the argument. Eliminate

(C) Many types of pollen were common to several geographical regions in the ancient world. 
 This a distraction and out of scope. The argument is how pollen sticks to relic with/without moving to different geographical regions. Eliminate.

(D) Data are scarce as to the geographical distribution of the pollens of many ancient plants. 
 Geographical distribution of the pollens are irrelevant to the argument. Eliminate.

(E) Pollen analysis is a painstaking process that is also expensive to conduct. 
 Pollen analysis difficulty is irrelevant to the argument. Eliminate

Hence A is the correct answer choice.

sanjitscorps18 · Answer

Option A fits the bill for one more reason.

The argument talks about  A relic is linked to a geographical area by the identification of pollen from  plants that are known to have been unique to that area .

The plants are unique, not the pollens. Hence identification by pollens would not be a completely reliable method.

One good clue as to which geographical regions an ancient relic was mo

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One good clue as to which geographical regions an ancient relic was mo

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