PT152.S4.Q19

PrepTest 152 - Section 4 - Question 19

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Support European wood ants incorporate large quantities of solidified conifer resin into their nests. ███████ █████ ██ █ ███████ ████████████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ █ ██████████████████ ████████

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis

The author hypothesizes that wood ants use conifer resin in their nests to protect against disease. This is because conifer resin kills bacteria that can harm wood ants.

Notable Assumptions

The author assumes a causal relationship from a correlation. In other words, the author assumes that just because the resin has disinfectant properties, these properties are the reason why wood ants use it in their nests, instead of some other reason—maybe the resin helps make a strong nest, or the ants just like the smell of it.

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19.

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

a

whether conifer resin ███████ ███ ████████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████

Irrelevant—we have no reason to believe the resin’s disinfectant properties would need to last a long time for the ants to use it for disease-protection measures. Maybe the resin doesn’t retain its disinfectant properties for long, and the ants just replace it periodically.

9%
b

whether the nests ██ ████████ ████ ████ █████████ ███████ ████ ███████ █████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████

Irrelevant—we don’t know anything about how the time of year could affect why the ants use the resin. We’d have to make way too many assumptions for this to be useful.I

2%
c

whether any ant ███████ █████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ █████ █████

Irrelevant—the argument is solely about European wood ants. What other ants use in their nests is not relevant to the author’s conclusion.

Irrelevant corroboration
8%
d

whether the use ██ ███████ █████ ███████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ █████

This is useful—if the answer is yes, we have another use for the resin. This weakens the author’s conclusion that the ants use it for its disinfectant properties. If no, the author’s argument is strengthened, as a potential alternative explanation is eliminated.

Alternate explanation
73%
e

whether the disinfectant ██████████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ ██ █ ██████████████████ ███████ ███ ███████ █████

Irrelevant—how other organisms use conifer resin, or how it developed its disinfectant properties, are not relevant to the argument, which is about how and why the ants use the resin.

Irrelevant corroboration
7%

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