PT139.S3.P4.Q24

PrepTest 139 - Section 3 - Passage 4 - Question 24

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P1

Calvaria major. ██ █ ████ ███ █████████████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ █ █████ ██████████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████ █████ █████████ ████ ███

Intro topic / phenomenon · Calvaria major (CM)
CM is rare today, but used to be abundant. Found on an island that used to have dodos.
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Temple's hypothesis · CM declined because of extinction of dodo
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Temple's findings · Found very few CM trees, all old
The trees produced apparently fertile fruit. Temple thought the fruits couldn't germinate (sprout new CM trees).
P2

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Temple's proposed causal mechanism · CM seeds in fruit adapted to dodo
Dodos ate CM fruits. Seeds in fruit became thick to withstand passing through dodos' stomachs. But seeds were so thick they couldn't germinate without passing through dodos' stomachs. When dodos went extinct, seeds couldn't germinate.
P3

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Temple's Support · No direct proof, but some supporting findings
"Semblance of rigor" means argument looked rigorous. But, suggests not actually rigorous.
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Temple's Support 1 · CM seeds could likely survive passing through dodo's stomach
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Temple's support 2 · Some CM seeds germinated after passing through turkey stomachs
P4

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Critique of Temple's hypothesis · Leading specialists challenge Temple
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Challenge 1 · There are lots of young CM trees
This shows CM seeds have continued to germinate after dodo went extinct. Inconsistent with Temple's hypothesis.
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Challenge 2 · Enough CM seeds germinate to sustain CM species
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Other hypotheses · CM decline could be due to disease or introduction of non-native animals
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Show answer
24.

In saying that Temple's supporting ████████ ████ ███ ████████ █ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████

a

despite his attempts ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████████████ ████████ ████████████ ████████ █████████ ████████ █████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████

The problem that the author has with Temple isn’t that his methods were not carefully derived––we don’t know what the author thinks about this. Because (A) does not accurately capture the author’s perspective, (A) doesn’t describe the author’s purpose in using the phrase “semblance of rigor.”

9%
b

direct proof of █ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ███ █████████████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ████████████ ███ ████████████

This isn’t the purpose of the phrase “semblance of rigor.” This sentence already tells us that direct proof was impossible to attain. The purpose of “semblance of rigor” isn’t to communicate the same idea that has already been communicated earlier in this sentence.

9%
c

in contrast to ████████ ██████████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ████████ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ █████ ███████████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████████ ████████

The purpose of using the phrase “semblance of rigor” isn’t to contrast the accuracy of Temple’s secondhand information with his firsthand research. This contrast isn’t something that the author is trying to communicate in this paragraph, so we know that this isn’t the author’s purpose in using this phrase. Instead, the author says “semblance of rigor” to show that things might not be as they appear.

10%
d

in his experimentation ██ ████████ █████ █████ ██████ ████████ ████████████ ████████████ ███████ ████ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████

This is the author’s purpose in using the phrase “semblance of rigor.” Remember that “semblance” means the appearance of having some quality, even when that may not be the case. The author’s purpose in this sentence is to say that Temple’s additional findings made his argument seem rigorous. However, this appearance of rigor is superficial, since Temple’s quantitative research was about turkeys, while he was making conclusions about dodos.

66%
e

although the consensus █████ ███████ ██ ████ ████████ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███████████████ ██████ █████████

We don’t know what the consensus among experts is regarding Temple’s conclusion. We know that the author, Strahm, and Speke question Temple’s conclusion, but we don’t know if this indicates consensus among experts. Additionally, the author doesn’t admire Temple’s precision and creativity. Because the author doesn’t agree with the claim in (E), we know that this isn’t the author’s purpose in using the phrase “semblance of rigor.”

6%

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