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Let's get rid of the four answers we can match up with the passage.
The passage is primarily concerned with assessing
the effects of a devastating
The passage is about assessing what caused the dolphin die-off, not about assessing its effects.
4% picked this
the process by which illnesses
The author was not assessing "the process by which they were correctly diagnosed". The author was assessing "the accuracy of the diagnosis". The author doesn't think that the researchers correctly diagnosed the dolphins.
4% picked this
the weaknesses in the research
The passage is all about assessing this explanation from the researchers. The main point is the assessment the author offers at the beginning of the 4th paragraph: "this explanation is not plausible". This answer is saying the main point was, "This methodology was not sound".
12% picked this
possible alternative explanations for the
Why this is right
This answer is weirdly plural, when there's really only one alternative explanation considered (although maybe the "perhaps from offshore dumping" counts as a 2nd alternative explanation). But it's the only answer that correctly identifies that the passage is assessing what caused the dolphin die-off. The researchers explain the die-off by saying that it was primarily brevetoxin poisoning from a red-bloom, assisted by metabolizing pollutants, and capped off by some opportunistic bacterial infection. The author is considering the alternative hypothesis that it was primarily a sharp uptick in the dolphins' exposure to pollutants, assisted by brevetoxin poisoning.
Skill tested: Primary Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
77% picked this
relative effects of various marine
This answer is saying that the author named various separate marine pollutants and then ranked their relative effects on dolphin mortality. We might be able to say that PCB and brevetoxin are both marine pollutants. But brevetoxin comes from algae, which is a natural marine organism. It's a stretch of language to call an algal bloom a marine "pollutant". Yes, it changes the chemistry of the water, but the term 'pollutant' is reserved for unnatural additions to an ecosystem (like humans dumping their chemical wastes into the ocean). Also the author isn't assessing their relative effects on dolphin mortality (she says that brevetoxin's effects aren't even really known yet). The author is only assessing whether PCB vs. brevetoxin was the primary culprit in this particular episode of dolphin mortality.
2% picked this
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