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PT155.S2.Q3

SECTION 1 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 2 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

SECTION 3 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7

PASSAGE 2
Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15

PASSAGE 3
Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22

PASSAGE 4
Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26 Question 27

SECTION 4 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

PrepTest 155 - Section 2 - Question 3

Question

Explanation

Analytics

Show analysis

Biologist: DNA analysis shows that . ██████ █████████████ █ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ███ █████████ █████ █████ ██████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ █████████ █████ █████ █████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis

The biologist hypothesizes that seabirds brought Acacia koa seeds from Hawaii to Réunion Island. He supports this by noting that seabirds can carry seeds over long distances, and by pointing to DNA evidence that shows that Acacia heterophylla trees on Réunion Island are descended from the Hawaiian Acacia koa. He argues that it’s unlikely that the seeds floated to Réunion Island because they won’t germinate after being soaked in seawater and because both trees grow in the mountains, not near the shore.

Notable Assumptions

The biologist assumes that the seeds couldn’t have floated across the ocean without being soaked in seawater. He also assumes that his hypothesis is the most likely, without considering whether there actually are seed-carrying seabirds on these islands, or whether another explanation, like humans transporting the seeds, is more likely.

Analysis by EleanorRoberts

Show answer

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

A. koa branches ████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ █████

This supports the alternative hypothesis that the seeds floated across the ocean. It doesn’t support the biologist’s hypothesis that seabirds carried the seeds to Réunion Island.

Directionally wrong

Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).

There are mountain-nesting ███████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████

This strengthens the biologist's argument by addressing the assumption that seabirds actually live on both Réunion and Hawaii and are likely to carry seeds between the mountains. If mountain-nesting seabirds are common to both islands, his hypothesis becomes much more likely.

Plausibility

Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.

A. koa is ███████ ██ ██ █████████ ████ ██████ ████████████ █ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████████

The argument is only concerned with the fact that A. heterophylla is descended from A. koa. It doesn’t matter what tree A. koa is descended from.

Ocean currents have █████████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████

Like (A), this supports the alternative hypothesis by implying that the seeds could’ve floated from Hawaii to Réunion. Instead, we need an answer choice that strengthens the biologist’s hypothesis that seabirds carried the seeds between the islands.

Many seabird species ██████ ██ ████ ████ █████████████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ██████

Irrelevant— we don’t know whether the “many seabirds species” in (E) are living on Réunion or Hawaii. Even if they are, this weakens the argument by suggesting that the seabirds rarely return to land to disperse the seeds.

Difficulty

Question

97% of people who answer get this correct

This is a low-difficulty question.

CURVE

Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right

25% 125

132

75% 138

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Strengthen

Stems that ask us to provide an additional piece of information that, if true, would strengthen the argument in the stimulus.

Stimulus Tags

Causal reasoning

Stimuli that feature the logic of causation (e.g. phenomenon-hypothesis, causal chain, experiments).

Phenomenon-hypothesis (LR)

Stimuli that describe a state of affairs (phenomenon), then offer a conclusion as to what has caused that state of affairs (hypothesis). A sub-type of causal reasoning.

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

144

Directionally wrong

97%

160

Plausibility

146

143

147

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