Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT10 S4 Q20 Explanation

Some flowering plant species

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TopicsMost Supported

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Stimulus

Some flowering plant species, entirely dependent on bees for pollination, lure their pollinators with abundant nectar and pollen, which are the only source of food for bees. Often the pollinating species is so highly adapted that it can feed from—and thus pollinate—only a single species of plant. Similarly, some plant species have pesticides destroy the pollinating bee species, the plant species itself can no longer reproduce.

What this question is testing

Most Supported

Setup

The stimulus describes a tight mutual dependence between certain plants and bees. The plant depends on a single bee species to pollinate it; the bee depends on a single plant species for food.

Evaluate

The stimulus walks through the plant's vulnerability: kill the bee, plant can't reproduce. But the same dependence runs the other direction. The bee feeds on only one plant species — its only source of food. Destroy that plant's habitat and the bee starves.

Goal

Find the answer that says destroying a plant's habitat could drive a bee species to extinction.

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The question
20.

The information above, if true, most strongly supports which one of

Answer choices

  1. Unsupported2% picked this

    The earliest species of flowering plants appeared on Earth contemporaneously with the

    The stimulus says nothing about when flowering plants and bees first appeared. We can't infer historical chronology from facts about current dependence patterns.

  2. Unsupported31% picked this

    If the sole pollinator of a certain plant species is in no danger of extinction, the plant species it pollinates is

    This claims plant safety from a bee's safety. But the stimulus describes multiple threats to plants — a plant could face habitat destruction, climate change, or other ecological harms even if its pollinator is fine. The stimulus doesn't support the inference that bee survival guarantees plant survival.

  3. Unsupported4% picked this

    Some bees are able to gather pollen and nectar from any

    The stimulus focuses on highly specialized bees that feed only on one plant species. It doesn't discuss generalist bees that can gather from any plant species. We have no support for "some bees can gather from any species."

  4. Unsupported5% picked this

    The blossoms of most species of flowering plants attract some species of bees and do

    The stimulus tells us about extreme specialists (one-bee-one-plant arrangements). It doesn't make claims about most flowering plants. The relationship between flowering plants and bees in general isn't addressed.

  5. Correct57% picked this

    The total destruction of the habitat of some plant species could cause some bee species

    Why this is right

    This follows from the symmetric dependence the stimulus describes. The stimulus says some bees can feed from — and thus pollinate — only one plant species; nectar and pollen are bees' only food source. So if you totally destroy that one plant's habitat, the bee species that depends on it loses its only food source and could go extinct. The stimulus directly supports this reverse direction.

    Skill tested: Most Supported · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

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