The pronghorn, an antelope-like mammal that lives on the western plains of North America, is the continent's fastest land animal, capable of running 90 kilometers per hour and of doing so for several kilometers. ███
The four wrong answers will be mentioned as support for the biologist’s hypothesis. The correct answer will not be mentioned as support for that hypothesis, because this is an EXCEPT question.
Stated. This provides support by establishing that there is indeed an extinct environmental condition to which the pronghorn might have adapted. If we can’t show that there are extinct predators of the pronghorn, then that would undermine the hypothesis.
3%
b
the absence of ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████████ ███████████
The author doesn’t state that there are no carnivores in the pronghorn’s present-day environment. What the author says is that there are no predators that are fast enough to chase the pronghorn down.
76%
c
the present-day preference ██ ██████████ ███ ████████ █████
Stated as support for the hypothesis.
2%
d
the apparent need ███ █ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███████
Stated as support for the hypothesis. The fact that we need to turn to a relict behavior hypothesis to explain why pronghorns herd is offered as “supporting evidence” for the hypothesis that pronghorns’ speed is a relict behavior.
13%
e
the occurrence of ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████
Stated as support for the hypothesis.
6%
Difficulty
76% of people who answer get this correct
This is a moderately difficult question.
It is similar in difficulty to other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%135
149
75%162
Analysis
Except (RC)
Except (RC)
Stated
Stated
Stems asking us to identify an idea that appears explicitly in the passage (as opposed to ideas that are merely implied).
Passages that focus on describing or evaluating potential explanations for a given phenomenon. Causal reasoning features prominently in these passages.