Self-study
Ecologist: Before finding a mate, male starlings decorate their nests with fragments of aromatic plants rich in compounds known to kill parasitic insects. █████ █████ █████████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ████ ████████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ████████ █████ █████ ██ ███████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ █████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██ ███████ ████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The ecologist hypothesizes that the reason male starlings use aromatic plants in their nests is to attract females, contrary to previous hypotheses that the plants protected nestlings from parasites. This is based on the observation that these males only incorporate these aromatic plants before egg-laying begins, and stop adding them to nests when egg-laying begins.
Notable Assumptions
The ecologist assumes that there is not an alternate explanation for the male starlings only incorporating the aromatic plants before egg-laying.
The ecologist also assumes that aromatic plants incorporated before egg-laying couldn’t kill parasitic insects over an extended time period, and thus still protect nestlings.
4.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ███████████
a
Adult starlings are ████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ███████ █████████ ████████
b
Male starlings do ███ ████████ █████ █████ ██ █████ ████ █████████ █████ ███████████ ██ █████████ ████████
c
Nestlings grow faster ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ████████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ████
d
Male starlings tend ██ ████████ █████ █████ ████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████ ████ █ █████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████
e
The compounds in ███ ████████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████