Self-study
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
Critique ·
Consensus view among scientists is that Lamarck is wrong
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?
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?
Steele ·
Yes, circumstantial evidence
Steele claims that there's circumstantial evidence. Something about a pattern of mutations. Not sure what this means.
Other Biologists ·
No, there are simpler explanations for the "pattern of mutations"
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
24.
What is the primary function ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █ ██████
a
to present various ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
The author doesn’t present “various objections” raised to Steele’s hypothesis. Although the author notes that other biologists aren’t convinced, we don’t get any specific arguments against Steele’s hypothesis. Even if you think the idea that Steele’s hypothesis is “radical” is an objection, that doesn’t capture “various objections.” Since (A) doesn’t happen, it can’t be the primary purpose of the last paragraph.
b
to dismiss the ██████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ████████
This is too negative. The author doesn’t dismiss Steele’s hypothesis. Although the author doesn’t necessarily agree with it, this doesn’t imply she dismisses it. Also, the last paragraph brings up Steele’s evidence; so the author doesn’t suggest Steele’s hypothesis doesn’t have evidence.
c
to explain how ███ ██████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███████
The last paragraph doesn’t discuss any potential changes to Steele’s hypothesis. So (C) can’t be the purpose of the last paragraph.
d
to suggest several ████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ████████ █████████ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
Although we might get ideas for further research based on what’s discussed in the last paragraph, the author does not raise potential research directions. She doesn’t suggest that anyone should do more research or that we might benefit from more research.
e
to indicate the ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
This best captures the purpose of the last paragraph. The author presents