PT139.S3.P4.Q27

PrepTest 139 - Section 3 - Passage 4 - Question 27

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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
27.

Based on the passage, it ███ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████ ████████ █████ ███████

a

The causes of ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████

Supported. In the discussion of Temple’s critics, the author never indicates that these critics have identified why the pit walls have evolved, so the author would likely agree that these critics haven’t definitively identified the cause of the evolution of the durable pit walls.

6%
b

The notion that ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ████ █ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███ ████ ████████████ ████████████

Supported. The author does say that only a minority of the unabraded seeds germinate. While the number of seeds that germinate is sufficient to avoid extinction, it could still be true that the low germination rate due to the thick walls has led to population decline. In other words, the author recognizes that this possibility hasn’t been definitively discredited.

11%
c

In light of ███ ███████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██████████████

Unsupported. The author never indicates that we should expect the population of Calvaria major trees to be abundant. We know that the germination rate is low, and the author cites several factors that could be responsible for Calvaria major population decline. The author clearly recognizes the population decline, so we can’t support the claim that the author is surprised that the tree isn’t abundant.

64%
d

There is good ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ████████ ███████████

This is supported in P4. We see that the number of seeds that germinate is sufficient to prevent extinction, so the author likely agrees that the tree isn’t threatened with imminent extinction.

14%
e

Calvaria major seeds ███ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███████ █ ██████ █████████ ███████

This is supported in P4, where we see that some unabraded seeds do germinate, which shows that they can germinate even if they don’t pass through a bird’s digestive system.

6%

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