Self-study
"Hot spot" is a term that ecologists use to describe those habitats with the greatest concentrations of species found only in one place—so-called "endemic" species. ████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██ ██████████ ████████████ ████████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████████████ █████ █████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ ████████
Summary
Hot spots are places with the highest concentrations of endemic species. Habitats at many hot spots are threatened by commercial development. This threatens the endemic species in these hot spots. Most extinctions involve loss of endemic species.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
We’re looking to fill in a blank concerning what would be reasonable to do for organizations dedicated to preserving species, given that these organization can’t fight for every environmental cause. The evidence suggests it’s reasonable for these organizations to try to protect hot spots from commercial development.
1.
Which one of the following ████ █████████ █████████ ███ █████████
a
try to help ████ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████
Unsupported. The stimulus gives us evidence about hot spots and the threats to species in hot spots. This conclusion isn’t focused on hot spots. Species threatened because of habitat loss includes more than just species threatened in a hot spot. So this conclusion is too broad.
b
concentrate their resources ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ████████
Strongly supported. The evidence concerned endemic species in hot spots, and a significant proportion of extinctions involve endemic species. So there’s strong reason to focus on protecting hot spots, which are defined as the places with the most endemic species.
c
treat all endemic ███████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ████████████
Unsupported. The stimulus may support that idea that endemic species are more in need of protection than non-endemic species. But we don’t have enough to draw conclusions about individual endemic species compared to other endemic species. Some may be more important than others.
d
accept that most ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████
Unsupported. The stimulus doesn’t support giving up. It supports directing efforts to hot spots. We don’t have any basis to say these effort are likely to fail or that organizations should just accept species loss. Maybe there efforts can succeed and save most endemic species.
e
expand the definition ██ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███████
Unsupported. The stimulus supports a conclusion about where organizations should focus their efforts concerning species protection. Expanding the definition of hot spot wouldn’t help protect more species, because we don’t know if anyone is trying to protect hot spots yet.