PT105.S3.P1.Q1

PrepTest 105 - Section 3 - Passage 1 - Question 1

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P1

Until recently, many biologists believed that invertebrate "schools" were actually transient assemblages, brought together by wind, currents, waves, or common food sources. █████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████████████ ██████ █████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███

Biologists' old perspective · "Schools" of invertebrates are are not really schools
Example: groups of jelly fish are not cohesive social units that are evenly spaced from each other and face the same way. (Seems like we get a definition of "schools" here.)
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New perspective · Some invertebrates do form schools
Example: krill (a type of invertebrate crustacean) sometimes group together in schools.
P2

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Support for new perspective · Groups of invertebrates can position themselves in a way that meets the definition of "school"
The way each member swims is consistent relative to other members, and they don't swim directly above or below a neighbor. (This sounds similar to the "evenly spaced" requirement.)
P3

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Researchers' assumption · Researchers assume schooling has benefits
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Concession · Schooling seems like it'd make animals more visible and attractive to predators
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Benefits of schooling · Reduces chance of being eaten
School is harder to find, can scare away predators, and an individual member is more likely to get away, since there are a lot of other school members to eat.
P4

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Additional benefits · Active defense mechanisms
These are more active defenses, whereas the last paragraph described passive benefits. Schools have different approaches based on the size of predators and whether they are attacking.
P5

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Another benefit · Helps with finding food
When one member finds food, other members can follow.
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Cost of schooling · Schools can get too big
Too many members may hurt ability to get food and mates. If school's too big, some members will join another school.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
Show answer
1.

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

a

The optimal size ██ █ ██████ ██ █████████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██████████████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████████

This is too narrow. The optimal size of a school is only one point discussed by the passage. (A) doesn’t capture the rest of the passage, which is focused on the benefits of schooling.

2%
b

The internal structure ██ █ █████ ██ █████████████ ██████████ ████ █████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████

This is too narrow. The kinds of defensive maneuvers a group can perform is simply one of the benefits mentioned for schooling. (A) doesn’t capture the more general point that that there are various benefits for invertebrates that school. (B) is also unsupported, because the author never connects the internal structure of a group with different defensive maneuvers.

0%
c

Although in many ████████ ████████████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ██ ████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ███████

Unsupported, because the passage doesn’t go into differences between fish schools and invertebrate schools.

3%
d

Certain invertebrates have ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ █ ████████ ████ ███████ █ ██████ ██ █████████

This best captures the main point. At the end of P1, the author tells us that invertebrates can school. The rest of the passage goes into the benefits of schooling (with a small portion at the end related to the optimal size of a school).

94%
e

Invertebrate schooling is ████ ████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████ ████████

Unsupported, because the author never compares the different aims of schooling and which one is more important. Also, (E) doesn’t capture the author’s focus on the benefits of schooling.

2%

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