PT108.S4.P1.Q1 > Analytics

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Naturalists have long studied the ability of North American forest birds to survive extremely cold overnight temperatures in winter. ███

Phenomenon · Birds can survive extremely cold winter night temperatures

Presumably, the question is how they can do this?

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Examples of Phenomenon and Explanation · Nuthatches, chickadees, and grosbeaks

Nuthatches sleep in cavities to retain heat; Chickadees induce torpor to save energy; Grosbeaks eat a lot of fatty seeds to power shivering.

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Unexplained Phenomenon · Kinglets

How do kinglets stay warm?

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1st Unexplained Aspect of Phenomenon · Tiny size

Kinglets' small size means they rapidly lose heat and hence should have to consume and burn more calories to maintain temperature.

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Partial Explanation · Insulating feathers

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2nd Unexplained Aspect of Phenomenon · Insect diet

We already know that kinglets are supposed to have to eat more food but they only eat insects that they catch during the short winter day. How can they be constantly catching and eating enough insects?

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Partial Explanation · Kinglets store fat well

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Remaining Unexplained Phenomenon · Fat stores only accounts for half the energy they need to survive

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Hypothesis · Perhaps they also induce torpor?

No evidence for this.

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Hypothesis · Perhaps they cluster together?

We know that other birds do this. Perhaps at night, kinglets cluster to retain heat.

Passage Style

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

Single position

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

Question Type

Main point

In a Phenomenon-Hypothesis passage, if the author supports a hypothesis, the main point typically relates to that hypothesis. Here, the author proposes a partial explanation for how kinglets can survive cold overnight weather: kinglets store fat. But the author also proposes another hypothesis, which is untested: kinglets might cluster together at night.

Kinglets are able ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██████ ███████ █ █████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████████

(A) is the phenomenon. But (A) doesn’t say anything about potential hypotheses to explain the phenomenon.

20%

Researchers have tested ███████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ █████████████

Unsupported, because the passage never establishes that researchers have “tested” theories regarding kinglets.

Kinglets are unique █████ █████ █████ ███ ██ █ ████████ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ██████

Unsupported, because we have no reason to think kinglets are “unique” among small birds in their ability to survive extremely low temperatures. In fact, we know from P1 that at least some other birds can survive cold temperatures — nuthatches, chickadees, and grosbeaks.

The kinglet's tiny ████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██ ████████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ██████ ███████

Unsupported. The author doesn’t suggest that the kinglet’s small size makes observing them more difficult.

Researchers do not ███ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████████████ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ███████

This is the best answer, because it at least relates to the hypotheses in the last paragraph. We have a partial explanation for how kinglets stay cold, but we don’t yet fully understand how they are able to survive.

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