Logical Reasoning

PT107 · S3 · Q15 For the condor to survive in the

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For the condor to survive in the wild, its breeding population must be greatly increased.

Statements

We're reading for Conditional, Causal, Mathematical, or Pivot wording. The first and second sentences are conditional, both of them stating Requirements

(for X to happen, it must be that Y)

condor surviving → breeding population in the wild (requires) increases

(Y happening depends upon Z happening)

breeding pop → most eggs hatch increasing (requires)

This chain of requirements is saying "the condor's survival depends on most eggs hatching". Then we hear the desperate sounding .

The last sentence says one possible way to make it more likely that most eggs will hatch is to breed them in captivity.

Goal

Could we say that the condor's survival depends on breeding them in the captivity and then returning them to the wild? Pretty much. They need most of their eggs to hatch and that's extremely unlikely to happen in the wild.

15.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

  1. The condor as a species

    Too Strong: will eventually

    The condor sounds threatened, that's for sure, but the last sentence seems to provide one possible way that we could still save the condor and help it repopulate, so we can't support the total pessimism of "the condor will eventually become extinct in the wild". I mean, eventually, all animals will be extinct, since the Sun will burn out billions of years from now, but that's using outside knowledge, not information from this passage.

    3% picked this

  2. The best way to save

    Too Strong: the best

    The last sentence says "one possible" way [to save the condor] is to breed it in captivity. But maybe there are other possible ways, and at least one of those is superior. We don't know enough about the various options to say that breeding in captivity is "the best" way.

    10% picked this

  3. It is almost impossible to

    Too Strong: almost impossible

    It sounds like breeding the birds in captivity would be "one possible way to eliminate the effects of these factors [the environmental dangers confronting condor eggs]". So unless we feel like breeding in captivity is "almost impossible", there's no reason to go this far into pessimism.

    10% picked this

  4. Correct

    If more condor eggs do

    Why this is right

    This sort of just gives us the contrapositive of the first sentence. The first sentence said this: Condor surviving ? breeding population in the wild (requires) big increase The contrapositive is, breeding population ? condors won't survive doesn't have big increase in the wild If "more condor eggs do not hatch", then it sounds like "there won't be a big increase in breeding population", which means that "the condor won't survive in the wild".

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

    68% picked this

  5. The most feasible way to

    Too Strong: the most feasible

    We don't learn about multiple ways to save the condors. We only hear about "one possible way", so there's no way to compare different ways to each other in order to rank which one is most feasible.

    9% picked this

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