Self-study
Loggerhead turtles live and breed in distinct groups, of which some are in the Pacific Ocean and some are in the Atlantic. ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███████████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██████████ █████ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ █████ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that juvenile Pacific loggerhead turtles that feed near the Baja peninsula hatch 10,000 kilometers away, near Japan. As support for this hypothesis, the author says that 95% of the DNA from these turtles near the Baja peninsula matches the DNA of the turtles near Japan.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that a 95% DNA match is enough to conclude that different turtles belong to the same group.
15.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████
a
Nesting sites of ██████████ ███████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████
Our argument is whether or not the turtles near the Baja peninsula and the turtles near Japan belong to the same group; the fact that there are other nesting sites is irrelevant to the argument.
b
The distance between ███████ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ███████████
This provides more information about conditions exclusively in the Atlantic Ocean, while our argument discusses Pacific turtles. This information does not impact our argument about the Pacific turtles.
c
Loggerhead hatchlings in ████████ ██████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ███ ████████ █████████
This answer does not weaken the argument because it gives information about the number of hatchlings (aka individual turtles) near Japan, but the number of nesting sites near the Baja peninsula. Comparing these different data points is not useful and doesn’t weaken the argument.
d
Ninety-five percent of ███ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ █████ █████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ████████
This tells us that two sets of turtles that are definitely from different groups (Atlantic turtles and Pacific turtles) have a 95% DNA match. If turtles from different groups can have 95% DNA match, then the argument loses its support.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
e
Commercial aquariums have ████ ████████████ ████████ ████████ ███████████ ████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ██████
The argument is about turtles in the wild, and whether or not turtles found in two different areas belong to the same group. (E) does not provide any information that impacts this argument.