Self-study
The current sharp decline in commercial honeybee populations has been attributed to the same viral and bacterial infections, pesticide poisonings, and mite infestations that devastated bees in the past. █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ████ █ ████████████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ██ ████████ █████████ █████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ██████████
Summary
The current decline in commercial honeybee populations has been attributed to various infections, pesticides, or mite infestations.
The author acknowledges that those potential causes may be the immediate cause of the honeybee population decline. But she concludes that inbreeding is likely a contributing factor in the decline.
What makes the author think this?
Because decades of breeding practices have limited honeybees’ genetic diversity.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that limits in honeybees’ genetic diversity is associated with inbreeding.
The author also assumes that having limited genetic diversity is something that can contribute to a decline in honeybees’ population.
3.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Commercial honeybees are ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ █████████ ████
Not necessary, because the argument never compares commercial honeybees to wild honeybees.
b
The results of ███████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████
Not necessary, because the argument is concerned only with whether inbreeding has contributed to the population decline. It’s not concerned with whether the problem of inbreeding can be solved in the future or how quickly it can be solved.
c
The genetic diversity ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ████████
Not necessary, because the argument is based on the fact that breeding practices have “limited honeybees’ genetic diversity.” Even if the diversity does not “continue” to decline, it’s still the case that the practice have limited genetic diversity, and this limited diversity can still contribute to a population decline.
d
In the past, █████ ██████████ ███ █████ ████ ██████████ ███████████ ███████ ████████ ████████████
Not necessary, because although we know that viral infections and mites have “devastated bees in the past,” we don’t know whether those bees were genetically diverse honeybee populations. If it turns out that those devastated populations were NOT genetically diverse, that actually supports the author’s argument.
e
Lack of genetic █████████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███████████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if lack of genetic diversity CANNOT make honeybees more vulnerable to adverse conditions — then we have no reason to think that the limited genetic diversity from breeding practices plays any role in the decline of the honeybee population. If (E) were negated, the adverse conditions (like the viral/bacterial infections) could simply have caused the the decline entirely on their own, without being aided by the limited genetic diversity of the bees.