Detail Identification
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LSAT Reading › Detail Identification
According to the passage, the primary cause for American courts abandoning the 'good-faith' requirement was that:
the English common law system was incompatible with the establishment of American property boundaries.
critics successfully argued that the good-faith requirement unintentionally incentivized deliberate land encroachment.
assessing a trespasser's subjective intent led to prolonged legal disputes and unpredictable outcomes.
the requirement prevented willful land thieves from benefiting from their actions.
the objective actions of trespassers were rarely continuous, open, and hostile to the true owner.
Explanation
The second paragraph states directly: 'Judges found that inquiring into a trespasser's subjective state of mind generated wildly inconsistent rulings and protracted litigation,' an exact match for (C). (E) is a carefully constructed trap: critics argued that abandoning the requirement incentivized encroachment, but that is an effect of the change, not the reason for it. (A) accurately describes the purpose of the good-faith requirement before it was abandoned, not the reason for abandoning it.
According to critics described in the passage, an effect of focusing on objective actions was:
a decrease in the continuous and open use of unlawfully occupied land.
the generation of wildly inconsistent judicial rulings.
an unintentional encouragement of willful land theft.
an increase in the number of clouded titles in the American legal system.
the re-establishment of historical moral safeguards in property law.
Explanation
The passage states critics argued the shift 'inadvertently incentivized deliberate land encroachment,' making 'willful land theft' in (D) an accurate paraphrase. (B) is a reversal: the passage explicitly says the shift helped clear clouded titles, meaning clouded titles decreased rather than increased. (E) names the problem the good-faith requirement itself caused — inconsistent rulings — not an effect of shifting to objective standards.
The author indicates that a tightened bid-ask spread is an effect of:
the sudden withdrawal of automated orders during periods of macroeconomic stress.
the constant stream of buy and sell offers provided by automated programs.
the instantaneous evaporation of perceived market depth.
the cancellation of algorithmic orders within milliseconds of an unfavorable market shift.
localized price plunges resulting from flash crashes.
Explanation
The first paragraph traces a direct causal chain: HFT firms 'providing a constant stream of buy and sell offers'... 'tightens the bid-ask spread.' (A) describes what happens during macroeconomic stress, which the second paragraph links to flash crashes, not spread-tightening. (C), (D), and (E) all describe components of the phantom liquidity phenomenon in the second paragraph — none are connected to the narrowing of the spread.
According to the passage, the widespread crop failures in the Eastern Mediterranean were directly caused by:
a centuries-long megadrought.
the destruction of Mediterranean forest species.
localized rebellions within the palace economies.
the invasion of the Sea Peoples.
the depletion of steppe flora in the Levant.
Explanation
The passage states the 'climatic shift would have caused widespread crop failures,' and the megadrought is the climatic shift in question. (A) is a classic reversal trap: the passage explicitly frames the Sea Peoples as a secondary effect of the agricultural collapse, not its cause. (C) names a consequence of the crop failures — localized rebellions — rather than the cause of those failures.
The passage indicates that the high specificity of bacteriophages results in which of the following effects?
The immediate approval of dynamic therapeutics by regulatory bodies.
The rapid adaptation of broad-spectrum antibiotics to combat new AMR strains.
The eventual rendering of traditional antibiotics as ineffective.
A delay in administering treatment due to the necessity of finding an exact bacterial match.
A renewed interest in penicillin-based treatments for systemic infections.
Explanation
Because phages target only a single bacterial strain, clinicians must 'culture the patient's specific bacterial isolate and screen it against a massive library of phages to find an exact match, a process that can delay critical treatment by several days.' (C) paraphrases this precisely. (B) describes an effect of traditional antibiotics — bacteria evolving resistance — not an effect of phage specificity. (D) is the opposite of what the passage states; regulatory approval is described as a major bottleneck, not an immediate process.
The passage indicates that having distinct mandatory terms for light blue and dark blue has which of the following effects on Russian speakers?
It discredits the strong form of the linguistic relativity hypothesis proposed by Whorf.
It forces them to consciously prioritize all visual distinctions in their environment.
It permanently alters the physiological structure of their visual perception.
It enables them to visually discriminate between certain shades of blue more rapidly than English speakers can.
It prevents them from universally recognizing the visual difference between green and blue.
Explanation
The second paragraph explicitly states that Russian speakers are 'significantly faster at visually discriminating between shades of blue that cross this linguistic boundary than English speakers are,' which (C) paraphrases directly. (A) directly contradicts the passage's central conclusion: 'language does not biologically dictate perception,' ruling out any permanent physiological alteration. (E) misreads the scope — the effect is limited to distinctions that are 'explicitly lexically encoded,' not all visual distinctions, and the process is described as unconscious rather than forced.
According to the passage, what did researchers find when Russian speakers performed timed categorization tasks?
a language's structural categories strictly determine the biological capabilities of its speakers.
physiological color perception is a universal human trait.
language can train the brain to prioritize certain lexically encoded visual distinctions.
English speakers are incapable of distinguishing between light blue and dark blue.
the strong form of the linguistic relativity hypothesis was prematurely discredited.
Explanation
The timed tasks showed Russian speakers were faster at discriminating lexically bounded blue shades, supporting the conclusion that language 'trains the brain to unconsciously prioritize and accelerate visual distinctions that are explicitly lexically encoded.' (D) captures this finding. (A) describes the finding from the first paragraph — the universality of physiological color perception — which was demonstrated by cognitive psychologists, not by the timed tasks. (B) restates the strong Whorfian hypothesis, which the passage says was discredited.
According to the abiotic model described in the passage, the presence of phosphine in the upper atmosphere of Venus is caused by:
deep-mantle volcanism combined with massive convective updrafts.
anaerobic microbes suspended in the planet's temperate cloud layers.
the rapid degradation of heavy molecular compounds in a highly oxidized environment.
the reaction of oxygen-poor environments with swamps and animal intestines.
the kinetic energy output of currently observed volcanic activity.
Explanation
The second paragraph outlines the abiotic model: 'deep-mantle volcanism could dredge up heavy phosphorus... which is then forced into the upper atmosphere by massive, localized convective updrafts where it reacts to form phosphine.' Both components are required. (B) describes the biological hypothesis the abiotic model is offered as an alternative to. (D) is a precise trap: the passage states the required kinetic energy 'far exceeds the output of any currently observed volcanic activity' — current volcanic output is cited as insufficient, not as the proposed cause.
According to the textualists described in the passage, relying on legislative history has which of the following effects?
It enables judges to select historical evidence that supports their personal policy preferences.
It empowers unelected congressional staffers to overrule the decisions of judges.
It binds judges more strictly to the enacted text of a statute.
It forces courts to understand the specific societal problem the legislature sought to remedy.
It clarifies the single, unified purpose of the collective legislative body.
Explanation
The second paragraph states the textualist argument explicitly: relying on legislative history 'allows judges to essentially cherry-pick quotes from a voluminous historical record to justify their own preferred policy outcomes.' (E) is a precise paraphrase. (C) describes the purposivist goal — understanding the societal problem the legislature sought to remedy — making it a strong attribution trap for students who lose track of which school of thought the question asks about. (A) is the direct opposite of the textualist claim; they argue legislative history undermines, rather than strengthens, fidelity to enacted text.
According to the passage, what did the anomalous GPS data first demonstrate about fault behavior?
that all faults are steadily creeping and safely dissipating tectonic stress.
localized, transient increases in the pressure of underground aquifers.
that faults can intermittently unlock and slide gradually over a period of weeks or months.
that subducting plates occasionally reverse their trajectory.
the ability to predict the exact timing of catastrophic, high-magnitude earthquakes.
Explanation
The passage states the 'GPS anomalies provided the first evidence that faults can intermittently unlock and slide over a period of weeks or months,' the defining characteristic of slow slip events. (E) is a precise distractor: the passage says the landmass above the subduction zone reverses trajectory, not the subducting plate itself — a substitution that will catch students who skim the relevant sentence. (D) names an effect of slow slip events rather than what the GPS data demonstrated about fault behavior.