PT119.S1.P3.Q18

PrepTest 119 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 18

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P1

The pronghorn, an antelope-like mammal that lives on the western plains of North America, is the continent's fastest land animal, capable of running 90 kilometers per hour and of doing so for several kilometers. ███

Intro Topic · Pronghorn
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Puzzling Phenomenon · Pronghorns' speed
Why are they faster than they need to be to escape any predator?
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Biologist: Explanation · Speed was adapted for extinct predators
P2

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Others: SKEPTICAL · Others skeptical of relict behavior hypothesis
Relict behavior defined as behavior adapted to extinct conditions, e.g., extinct predators.
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Others: Elaboration · Skeptical of hypothesis because difficult to test
Extinct conditions (e.g., predators) means no longer exist, so how can you test?
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Support Biologist · Some evidence supporting general relict behavior hypothesis
But what about for pronghorns, specifically?
P3

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Support Biologist · Lots of evidence for pronghorn relict behavior hypothesis
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Examples · Roam in herds, choose faster mates
Both behaviors once conferred evolutionary advantage but no longer do. Yet we still observe this relict behavior.
P4

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Support Biologist · Relict behavior in other animals
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Examples · Stickleback, ground squirrels
Both exhibit relict behavior: they avoid extinct predators.
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Elaboration · Relict behavior can disappear over time
Arctic squirrel lost extinct predator avoidance behavior after 3m years.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
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18.

The last paragraph most strongly ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████

a

An absence of █████████ ██ ██ ████████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████

The author doesn’t compare the level of threat created by the absence vs. the presence of predators. Although the author does suggest that certain defensive behaviors might disappear after a long time, such that an animal might not react defensively if it encounters a certain kind of predator, the author never suggests that this means the absence of a predator can be just as harmful to an animal as the presence of predators. Keep in mind that the arctic ground squirrel’s behavior disappeared because it doesn’t encounter rattlesnakes under normal conditions; so the disappearance of anti-rattlesnake behavior doesn’t actually constitute a significant threat to the squirrel.

3%
b

Relict behaviors are █████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ██████ ██████

The author doesn’t suggest that over half (most) of wild animals living today have relict behaviors. Although the author gives several examples of animals that engage in relict behaviors, this doesn’t imply that most wild animals have relict behaviors.

2%
c

If a behavior ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ███████████

Supported. The ground squirrel’s anti-rattlesnake behavior, if it is a relict behavior, might disappear, as shown by the arctic ground squirrel’s inability to recognize the danger posed by a rattlesnake.

85%
d

Behavior patterns that ██████████ ██ █ ███ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███████ █████████ ████ ███████ ████████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████████

Not supported, because we don’t know that period reinforcement will make a relict behavior last forever (interminably). Although there’s evidence that absence of reinforcement can lead to the disappearance of the behavior, this doesn’t imply that the presence of reinforcement guarantees the behavior won’t disappear.

8%
e

Behavior patterns invariably ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████

Not supported, the author doesn’t present evidence that anything “invariably” (always) occurs. In addition, the author doesn’t present any information concerning how long behaviors took to emerge. So we can’t support a comparison between how long behaviors take to emerge and how long they take to disappear.

1%

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