PrepTest 101 - Section 2 - Question 15 | Explanation & Discussion

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The authors of a recent article examined warnings of an impending wave of extinctions of animal species within the next 100 years. █████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ██ █████ █████

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis

The author concludes that, contrary to the recent article, the rate of animal extinctions is indeed accelerating. She supports this hypothesis with the observation that more fish species have gone extinct since 1950 than went extinct between 1900-1950.

15.

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

Question Type

Main conclusion or main point

The first two sentences set up someone else's position: some authors examined extinction warnings and concluded there's no evidence that extinction rates are accelerating. The argument's author disagrees. "They are wrong, however" is the pivot, and everything after it is the author's case.

The fish data is the evidence. Forty North American fish species and subspecies vanished in the twentieth century: 13 in the first half, 27 in the second half. The rate more than doubled. The author uses this as proof that extinction rates are, in fact, accelerating.

So the main conclusion is the author's rejection of the other authors' claim, translated into a positive statement: there is evidence that the rate of extinction of animal species is accelerating. The fish data is the premise supporting that conclusion. "Consider only the data on fishes" is worth noticing. The author isn't claiming to have proven the broader point about all animal species. The author is saying: even looking at just one group, you can already find evidence of acceleration. That's enough to refute the claim that "no evidence exists."

There is evidence ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ █████████████

This restates the author's conclusion. The other authors said no evidence exists that extinction rates are accelerating. The author says they're wrong and points to the fish data as that evidence. The conclusion is that evidence does exist.

90%

The future rate ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████████ █████████

The conclusion isn't about whether future extinction rates can be determined. The author takes a clear side: the fish data shows acceleration is happening. That's a claim that evidence exists, not a claim that the evidence is insufficient.

The rate of ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ █████ █████████

The author uses fish data to support a broader point but never claims that fish extinction rates mirror the rates for all animal species. The argument is more modest than that: fish data alone is enough to show that evidence of acceleration exists. Whether fish rates are representative of the overall trend is a separate claim the author doesn't make.

Forty species and ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████

This is a premise. The author presents it as established data to support the conclusion, not as something that itself needs proving. If this were the conclusion, you'd need to find another sentence in the stimulus offering proof that 40 species vanished, and nothing does that. The number is treated as a given fact, which is how premises work.

A substantial number ██ ████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████████

The conclusion isn't about fish species being in danger of imminent extinction. The argument is about whether extinction rates have been accelerating, and the fish data describes what has already occurred over the twentieth century, not what's about to happen next.

PrepTest 101 - Section 2 - Question 15

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