lsat-9-4-18

18.   In order to control the deer population, a biologist has proposed injecting female deer during breeding season with 10 milligrams of a hormone that would suppress fertility. Critics have charged that the proposal poses health risks to people who might eat the meat of treated deer and thereby ingest unsafe quantities of the hormone. The biologist has responded to these critics by pointing out that humans can ingest up to 10 milligrams of the hormone a day without any adverse effects, and since no one would eat even one entire deer a day, the treatment would be safe.

The biologist’s response to critics of the proposal is based on which one of the following assumptions?

(A) People would be notified of the time when deer in their area were to be treated with the hormone.

(B) The hormone that would be injected into the deer is chemically similar to hormones used in human contraceptives.

(C) Hunting season for deer could be scheduled so that it would not coincide with breeding season.

(D) The hormone in question does not occur naturally in the female deer that would be injected.

(E) Most people do not consider deer meat to be part of their daily diet and eat it only on rare occasions.

The answer is D.  The response should be the fact that people eat very litter meet of the certain deer. I do not know why D is the assumption. Thanks.

There are generally two types of answer for assumption questions - GAP and DEFENDER. In this question, it is a DEFENDER - eliminate a possible alternative that will make the conclusion not to hold itself. You can test the answer using Assumption Negation Technique (a trademark of Powerscore): to negate the answer, if the conclusion does not hold, it is the right answer. Do this test only with two final choices, because you don't have time to test all five.

D says "The hormone in question does not occur naturally in the female deer that would be injected.", to negate it, says "The hormone in question occurs naturally in the female deer that would be injected", this might cause the hormone intake of a human beyond the threshhold of 10mg, which will make the treatment unsafe, so it shakes the conclusion, therefore it is the right answr.

I still do not understand. What is the exactly Chinese meaning of choice D.

Thanks