LSAT Explanation PT 31, S2, Q11: Several thousand years ago, people in

LSAT Question Stem

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain why the people mentioned continued to grow corn as their staple grain crop? 

Logical Reasoning Question Type

This is a Paradox question. 

Correct Answer

The correct answer to this question is E. 

LSAT Question Complete Explanation

First, let's analyze the passage. It tells us that people in North America began to grow corn several thousand years ago. Corn grows faster and produces more food per unit of land than the grains they had grown previously. However, corn is less nutritious than those other grains, and people started having nutrition-related health problems soon after they began growing corn as their staple grain crop. Despite the health problems, they continued to grow corn as their staple grain.

Now, this is a Paradox question, which means we're looking for an answer choice that helps explain the apparent contradiction in the passage - why people continued to grow corn as their staple grain crop despite the nutrition-related health problems.

Let's analyze each answer choice:

a) This answer choice tells us that the variety of corn these people relied on produced more food than the ancestors of that variety. However, it doesn't address the nutrition issue, which is the key issue in the passage. The passage already tells us that corn produces more food, so this information doesn't help resolve the paradox.

b) This answer choice talks about modern varieties of corn being more nutritious than the varieties grown several thousand years ago. However, this information is out of scope, as the question is about people several thousand years ago, not about modern varieties of corn.

c) This answer choice says that the people did not domesticate large animals for meat or milk, which could supply nutrients not provided by corn. While this might explain why they had nutrition-related health problems, it doesn't help explain why they continued to grow corn as their staple grain crop.

d) This answer choice tells us that some of the grain crops that could have been planted instead of corn required less fertile soil to flourish than corn required. This information doesn't help explain why people continued to grow corn, as it suggests it would have been easier to switch to a different crop.

e) This answer choice says that the people discovered some years after adopting corn as their staple grain that a diet supplementing corn with certain readily available nongrain foods significantly improved their health. This information helps resolve the paradox because it suggests that people found a way to address the nutrition problems by supplementing their diet with other foods, which would explain why they continued to grow corn as their staple grain crop.

So, the correct answer is E, as it provides the most helpful explanation for why people continued to grow corn as their staple grain crop despite the nutrition-related health problems.