PT108.S4.P1.Q6

PrepTest 108 - Section 4 - Passage 1 - Question 6

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P1

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?
P2

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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
P3

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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?
P4

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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
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6.

The author mentions nuthatches, chickadees, ███ █████████ █████████ ██

a

introduce various methods ██ █████████ █████████ ████ █████████ ████████████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ █████

This best captures the purpose of bringing up these birds. They use different methods to survive cold temperatures overnight.

93%
b

identify which North ████████ ██████ █████ ████████████ ████ ████ █████████ ███ █████████ ████████████

The author doesn’t suggest that chickadees, nuthatches, and grosbeaks are the only North American forest birds that can cope with very low overnight temperatures. There could be many others, including the kinglet and other unmentioned bird species that have this ability.

2%
c

show that adaptation ██ █████████ ████ █████████ ████████████ ██ █████ ████ █████ █████ ████████ ██████ █████

Not supported, because there’s no suggests that the ability to survive cold temperature overnight is “only” found among North American forest birds.

0%
d

present strategies of █████████ █████████ ████ █████████ ████████████ ████ ████████ ██ ████████

Not supported, because the author doesn’t suggest that kinglets sleep in holes, induce torpor, or stay close to trees with certain seeds.

0%
e

prove that each ████ ███████ ███████ █ ██████ ████████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ █████████ ████████████

Not supported, because the author doesn’t suggest that the way in which each bird species survives the cold is “unique.” There may be other bird species that also induce torpor or that also sleep in holes. There’s no suggestion that other, unmentioned birds don’t use these techniques to survive the cold.

4%

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