PT110.S3.Q24

PrepTest 110 - Section 3 - Question 24

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Ringtail opossums are an Australian wildlife species that is potentially endangered. █ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ████████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ █████████ █████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ █ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████████████████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██ █ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ████████ ███████ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ █████████

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis

The conservationists hypothesize that non-native predators are endangering ringtail opossums, instead of a food scarcity. Why? Because non-native foxes killed 75 percent of a particular group of opossums that had been rehabilitated and returned to the wild.

Notable Assumptions

The conservationists assume the group of opossums raised in captivity died in a way typical of the general ringtail opossum population. This means assuming the group was large enough and diverse enough to be representative of ringtail opossums in Australia. They also assume a food scarcity would not make ringtail opossums any more vulnerable to predators and that their endangerment cannot be explained by anything except non-native predation.

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24.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ █████████████████ █████████

a

There are fewer ██████████ ████████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████

This doesn’t mean non-native predators pose a larger threat. If anything, it suggests the total number of opossums killed by native predators could be greater than the number killed by non-native predators, which would weaken the argument.

3%
b

Foxes, which were ██████████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████████████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ████████

This is irrelevant. It doesn’t mean other non-native species pose an even larger threat to ringtail opossums than foxes—there’s no indication those other species even prey on foxes.

2%
c

The ringtail opossums ████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ █ ████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ████████ ████████ █████████ ███ ██ ███ █████

This suggests the opossums killed had diets that were typical of wild opossums, not that their cause of death was typical. It doesn’t disfavor the leading alternative hypothesis, a food scarcity, because it doesn’t imply the opossums killed were able to find food in the wild.

Failed alternate explanation
14%
d

Few of the ███████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████

This is irrelevant. The conservationists explicitly blame non-native predators for the ringtail opossum’s endangerment, not species that compete with them for food.

Failed alternate explanation
6%
e

Ringtail opossums that ████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██████████ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ████████████ ████ ██ ████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████████

This rules out an alternative explanation for the opossums’ deaths: that the opossums raised in captivity were killed by foxes in large numbers because they were unusually bad at protecting themselves.

Alternate explanation
75%

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