Logical Reasoning

PT106 · S2 · Q13 Mature white pines intercept almost

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Mature white pines intercept almost all the sunlight that shines on them.

Background

Mature white pines steal so much sunlight that barely any light reaches the floor, making it impossible for new white pines to grow at the base of those trees. (there's also a deep, dry leaf litter)

Setup

If we saw a dense forest stand (group of trees) consisting of nothing but mature white pines ...

Goal

... there wouldn't be any baby white pines growing on the forest floor? All the trees grew up together? There's a ton of dry litter on the ground?

Look for a safely worded answer that reinforces something we know about white pines.

13.

Which one of the following most logically concludes the argument?

  1. Correct

    the ages of the trees

    Why this is right

    Let's say it takes 50 years for a white pine to be fully mature. Once it's fully mature, there aren't any baby white pines growing in its shade. This answer is saying all these trees must have started growing within the same 50-100 years or so. Since this is a dense stand of white pines, these white pines are pretty packed together. If they had grown at vastly different times, it would have required that wherever there will still gaps, a new baby white pine was able to grow in the shade of the mature white pines and fill that gap in. But we were explicitly told that can't happen. You can't have a sparse collection of white pines grow to maturity and THEN have some new white pines grow in their shade, filling in the gaps until it's a dense stand of trees, since white pines don't grow in the shade of white pines. Thus, in order to get a bunch of them growing near each other, they'd have to all be growing up more or less together. Otherwise, the first ones that reached maturity would start to block out sunlight and impede any other nearby ones from growing to maturity.

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

    61% picked this

  2. the land on which the

    Out of Scope: cleared land

    We have no reason to say that the land had been cleared of all trees when the first one started growing. It's entirely possible that other types of trees are compatible growing in the shade of white pines. We only know that white pines can't grow near white pines.

    8% picked this

  3. competition among the trees in

    Out of Scope: predicting (will soon)

    We only know that mature and baby/growing trees don't coexist. It's possible that mature white pines coexist. Thus, we have no grounds for guessing that some of them will soon start dying.

    24% picked this

  4. other species of trees will

    Too Strong

    Too Strong: replacing all Out of Scope: other species We never learned anything about other species, and we have no grounds to support the extreme prediction that these mystery trees will eventually replace 100% of the white pines.

    2% picked this

  5. any differences in the heights

    Too Strong: any, solely

    It's possible that some of these trees get better sunlight, or are hit by wind differently, or are used by animals differently, or were hit by lightning, etc. There's no way for us to support the extreme claim that every single difference in height is solely due to age.

    5% picked this

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