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Let's get rid of the four answers we can match up with the passage.
Which one of the following is mentioned in the passage as evidence for the explanation of the dolphin die-off offered in the final paragraph?
the release of stored brevetoxins
No one in the passage was ever saying that the dolphins had stored brevetoxins in their blubber reserves. We were only saying that they had PCB's in their blubber reserves, so as they started metabolizing their blubber, the PCB's attacked their system. This answer is just randomly tossing different words and phrases together.
2% picked this
the date on which offshore
The author isn't sure that there was any offshore dumping. She says, "perhaps from offshore dumping".
5% picked this
the presence of dumping sites
Out of Scope: dumping sites in the area The author never mentions any dumping sites in the area. She just says that the influx of pollutants could be "perhaps from offshore dumping".
11% picked this
the synthetic pollutants that were
The passage never talks about fish eating PCB's. The researchers' explanation was that fish had brevetoxin accumulated in their tissue, and so when the dolphins ate fish the dolphins acquired higher and higher levels of this toxin in their system. This answer is just tossing words and phrases from the passage together randomly.
14% picked this
the effects of PCBs on
Why this is right
We were looking for something that would match up with, "Finally, PCB poisoning is known to impair functioning of the immune system and liver and to cause skin lesions; all of these problems were observed in the diseased animals". Thus, the effects of PCBs on liver function in dolphins was mentioned as a piece of evidence supporting the author's alternative hypothesis.
Skill tested: Locate Detail · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
69% picked this
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