Self-paced
Delta green ground beetles sometimes remain motionless for hours at a stretch, although they are more active in wet years than in dry years. ██ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ █████ █████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ █ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ █ ███ ████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ████
Anticipating The Alternative Cause
This stimulus exhibits textbook phenomenon-hypothesis reasoning, although its conclusion is that [such and such] is probably not the cause:
Fact 1: These beetles stay hella still.
Fact 2: They move more when it’s wet.
Fact 3: Dude saw way fewer beetles in 1989 than in 1985.
Fact 4: 1989 was dry; 1985 was wet.
________
Hypothesis: Even though dude saw fewer beetles in 1989, that’s probably not because there were fewer beetles. [It was for some other reason.]
It’s helpful to remember that most of the time we weaken causal conclusions by proposing alternative causes. If you’re familiar with this pattern, you can suspect that the author’s position is that something about these facts suggests an alternate explanation for why the observer spotted fewer beetles in 1989.
From there, anticipating (A) is pretty doable: these beetles are easier to spot when they move around. This proactive anticipation is highly beneficial. It’s often pretty difficult to dismiss wrong answer choices to Strengthen questions on their own merits – firmly recognizing the correct answer can save precious minutes.
8.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██████
a
Because of their █████████ ███████████ █████ █████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███████
(A) explicates the alternate cause to which the stimulus implicitly refers: beetles are harder to spot when they move, and they were moving way more in 1985, so that’s why the observer saw fewer beetles in 1989.
If you didn’t proactively anticipate something along these lines, your key takeaway is to take a beat before moving to the answer choices to noodle on the stimulus’ claims. Precise anticipation isn’t always this clear, but when it is, catching it saves a lot of time and mental energy.
b
The only habitat ██ █████ █████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ █████████ ██████
If anything, this evidence suggests the difference in how many beetles the observer spotted was due to a drop in the population. If beetles only live in pools formed by winter rains, we’d expect those habitats to be substantially smaller in dry years than in wet years.
c
Delta green ground ███████ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ████████████ █████████
This unnecessarily explains why beetles move around, but it doesn’t touch on how those motivations (it’s not for food, it’s for reproduction) relate to how easy they are to spot.
d
Delta green ground ███████ ███ ██ ████ █████ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ █████ █ ██████ ███ ███ █████ █████ █████
Without additional information to suggest there was a change in rareness from 1985 to 1989, this fails to account for the change in the number of beetles the observer spotted between those years.
e
No predator relies ██ ███ █████ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ █ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███████
Without additional information to suggest this predator was more active in 1989 than in 1985, this fails to account for the change in the number of beetles the observer spotted between those years.