PT124.S4.P4.Q25

PrepTest 124 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 25

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P1

Sometimes there is no more effective means of controlling an agricultural pest than giving free rein to its natural predators. █ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ █ ████ █████ ██████████ ███ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ██ █ █████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ █████████████ ███

Intro topic · Controlling cyclamen mites using Typhlodromus mites
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Problem · Infestation of strawberry plants by cyclamen mites
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Solution · Typhlodromus mites
Attack in second year of infestation, when cyclamen mite populations reach damaging levels
P2

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Introduce explanation · Several reasons why Typhlodromus is a good solution
Reason 1: Voracious appetite
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Reason 2 · Typhlodromus population grows as quickly a cyclamen's
Both reproduce by parthenogenesis
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Reasons 3 and 4 · Reproductive timing and alternative sources of food
Reason 3: Typhlodromus only reproduces when cyclamen prey is available. Reason 4: Typhlodromus has other food sources, allowing it to survive when cyclamen mites are scarce.
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Draw similarity · Typhlodromus is similar to other predators that control prey
Because of reasons 1-4
P3

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Support solution · Experiments correlate presence of Typhlodromus with lower cyclamen populations
P4

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Implications of experiment · Pesticide use can cause more harm than good...
...if pesticides kill predators like Typhlodromus
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Reinforce implications · Where pesticide (parathion) used, Typhlodromus absent and cyclamen populations higher
Again, correlation between presence of Typhlodromus and lower cyclamen populations
Passage Style
Problem-analysis
Single position
Show answer
25.

The author mentions the egg-laying ███████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████

a

Mites that reproduce ██ ███████████████ ██ ██ ██ █████████████ █████ ██████

The author never makes the claim that mites that reproduce by parthenogenesis can do so at about equal rates. Although it’s true that the two mites the passage identifies reproduce at about equal rates, the author never intends to generalize this fact to other mites that reproduce by parthenogenesis.

3%
b

Predatory mites typically ████ █ ██████ ████████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████

Although this sounds like it’s supported by the highlighted line, at least with respect to T-mites, the purpose of the highlighted line isn’t to make this point. The purpose is to show that T-mite populations can increase as rapidly as C-mite populations. Also, (B) isn’t actually supported because the author never generalizes from T-mites to other kinds of predatory mites.

6%
c

Typhlodromus can lay █████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ████████ ██████

This is something the author states after the highlighted lines, but the highlighted lines support a different point. We know the highlighted line doesn’t support (C), because in the line immediately after the highlighted line, the author says synchrony “also” contributes to predatory efficiency. The “also” means we’re about to get a different feature that contributes to predatory efficiency. The highlighted line, then, is part of a description of the first feature that contributes to predatory efficiency.

24%
d

Typhlodromus can reproduce ██ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████

This is what the highlighted line is intended to support. Teh author tells us that T-mites can increase as rapidly as the population of C-mites. This is the first of several different factors that contribute to T-mites’ effectiveness as a predator. The highlighted line is part of a description of the T-mites’ speed of reproduction.

65%
e

The egg-laying rate ██ ████████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ██ █████ ████████

Actually, T-mites do not reproduce when C-mites aren’t present. So the egg-laying rate of T-mites is faster in the presence of C-mites.

1%

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