PT145.S1.P4.Q20

PrepTest 145 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 20

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P1

The French biologist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744–1829) outlined a theory of evolutionary change in 1809, 50 years before Darwin's . ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ███ ███████████████ ████ ████ █████████ ███

Lamarck's Theory of Evolution · Environmental adaptations could be inherited
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Critique · Consensus view among scientists is that Lamarck is wrong
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Steele · Claims to have evidence for Lamarckism
Steele claims to have found evidence for Lamarckian hereditary mechanism in the immune system. Not sure what this means but presumably the rest of the passage will flesh this out.
P2

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Phenomenon · Complexity of the immune system
How does our immune system work? If knowledge of how to defend against attacks are coded in the genes, how does it defend against a new disease, something it's never encountered before?
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Partial Explanation · Some immune system cells mutate a lot
The immune system doesn't know. But "typo" mutations (when an error occurs when transcribing DNA into RNA) happen a lot which allows immune system to test different defenses.
P3

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Steele's Hypothesis · Supporting Lamarckism
Steele hypothesizes that the "typo" mutations that end up working gets coded back into the immune cell's DNA. Steele further hypothesizes that a virus then carries the altered immune cell DNA into the DNA of the reproductive cells. That's the mechanism by which an environmentally induced adaptation (in the immune cell) gets inherited.
P4

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Evidence · for Steele's Hypothesis?
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Steele · Yes, circumstantial evidence
Steele claims that there's circumstantial evidence. Something about a pattern of mutations. Not sure what this means.
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Other Biologists · No, there are simpler explanations for the "pattern of mutations"

Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Show answer
20.

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████

a

The long-derided Lamarckian ██████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ███████████████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███████

Too strong. The author never suggests Lamarck’s thoery has been “proven correct.” The author merely describes Steele’s hypothesis for a mechanism that could allow Lamarck’s theory to be correct. But the author never suggests Steele’s hypothesis is actually correct.

1%
b

Steele and his ██████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ █ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ███████████████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██████████

This best captures the main point, which is that Steele proposes a mechanism for how acquired characteristics can be passed to offspring. The author expresses this best at the end of P1. P2 provides context for understanding Steele’s hypothesis, P3 presents Steele’s hypothesis, and P4 presents Steele’s purported evidence supporting the hypothesis.

74%
c

Although Steele and ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ █ ███████ █████████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████

Not supported, because the author calls Steele’s hypothesis about how changes in the immune system can be passed to offspring “speculative.” Moreover, the author also does not indicate that a similar mechanism is unlikely to operate elsewhere in the body. Since (C) is unsupported, it can’t be the main point.

1%
d

In contrast to ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ███████████████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██████████████ █████████

This doesn’t capture the author’s emphasis. Although it’s true that the author believes Steele’s hypothesis is speculative and that it relies on circumstantial evidence, the author’s main point isn’t to convey the speculative, unproven aspect of his hypothesis. Rather, the author’s main point is that Steele has a particular hypothesis. In any case, (D) is unsupported, too, because we’re not told that the standard theory of evolution does not rest on purely circumstantial evidence. In fact, even the standard theory of evolution must rest on circumstantial evidence, too, just as Steele’s hypothesis does.

22%
e

By showing that ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ███████████████ ██ █████ ██████████

Not supported, because the author never suggests Steele has actually shown that RNA can revert back into DNA. This is part of Steele’s hypothesis, but it hasn’t been proven yet. Since (E) isn’t supported, it can’t be the main point.

2%

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