Self-study
The male sage grouse has air sacs that, when not inflated, lie hidden beneath the grouse's neck feathers. ██████ ███ ██████ █████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ████ █████████ ██████ ██████ ██ █ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
Scientists hypothesize male sage grouse inflate their air sacs during a courting ritual so that female sage grouse can select healthy mates. They provide no evidence for this claim.
Notable Assumptions
The scientists assume that there's some way for female sage grouse to determine which males are healthy based on their inflated air sacs. The scientists also assume the female sage grouse are more likely to choose the healthy males.
6.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ███████████
a
Some female sage ██████ ████ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ███████
This is irrelevant, because we don't know how many "some" is. If this were stronger, it might even weaken the argument by suggesting that health isn't a concern for female grouse.
b
When diseased male ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████ ████████████ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███████
Did the illness or the treatment have any effect on the male grouse's air sacs? We don't know, so this has no effect on the argument.
c
Some healthy male ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████
Are these males still chosen by females? Is there another way that the grouse demonstrate their health? This isn't enough information to do anything to the argument.
d
Male sage grouse ███ █████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████
This supports the hypothesis by affirming the scientists' assumption that there's a way for female grouse to determine males' health based on their air sacs—simply by looking for parasites.
e
The sage grouse ██ ████████ █████████ ████ █ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ █████████
Without knowing whether this strain of malaria has any effect on the male grouse's air sacs, this just isn't relevant to the argument.