Self-study
On their way from their nest to a food source, ants of most species leave a trail of chemicals called pheromones. ███ ████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ███████ █ █████ ██████ ███████████ ████ ████████████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████████████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████
Summary
The author explains that most ant species use pheromone trails to find the way between their nest and food sources. However, the power of pheromones is limited: they are destroyed by temperatures over 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit). Incidentally, afternoons in the Sahara Desert usually rise above this temperature.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
The stimulus strongly supports these inferences:
Pheromone trails would be destroyed by heat during most Sahara afternoons.
Ants are not able to navigate using pheromone trails when the temperature is above 45 Celsius/113 Fahrenheit.
If any ants forage in the Sahara in the afternoon, for the most part they can’t use pheromones to navigate during that time.
12.
The statements above, if true, ████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Most ants forage ███ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ██████
This is not supported. The stimulus doesn’t talk directly about when ants forage. We also can’t draw a conclusion from temperatures, because we only know about Sahara afternoon temperatures. When and where is it cool enough for pheromones? We have no clue.
b
Most ants that ██ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████
This is not supported. The stimulus doesn’t indicate if any ants live in the Sahara at all, much less that most non-pheromone-using ants do.
c
If any ants ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ █████
This is strongly supported. We know that ants can’t use pheromones to navigate during most Sahara afternoons. This means that if any ants only forage during Sahara afternoons, they generally can’t—so don’t—navigate using pheromones.
d
If any ants ██ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ █████ █████ ████ ███ █ █████████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ██ ███████ ████████
This is not supported. The author never suggests how ants might navigate other than by using pheromones. We have no idea if it’s a different substance or some other method altogether.
e
If any Saharan ████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ███████████ ████ ████████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ████████████ ███ ██████
This is not supported. It might seem like not being able to use pheromones in high temperatures would lead to less-efficient foraging, but we don’t know about other ways ants could navigate. Maybe there are equally or more-efficient methods than pheromones.