Okapis

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Speculative28% picked this

   Okapis were pushed into this forest region by competition with mammals

   We never heard about okapi competing with other mammals in a forest and being displaced into another forest, so we should keep looking for an answer that sounds more like something we can point to in the passage for support. We only heard that okapi might be discouraged from eating on the forest border because of competition with the bushbuck and bongo.

   28%
2. B

   Contradicted3% picked this

   Okapis in this forest region forage in the border between forest

   From all we've heard thus far, okapi stick to the interior of the forest and do not graze on the border (zoologists think that competition with the bushbuck and bongo outcompete the okapi on that territory).

   3%
3. C

   Too Speculative5% picked this

   Okapis in this forest region are not threatened by the usual

   We have no reason to invent a totally different reality for these northern okapi. Why should we jump to the idea that the okapi's usual predators don't live nearby? Further, since zoologists think that hiding from predators is one of the reasons that okapi stay within the forest interior, we would probably think that in an area where their usual predators are absent, the okapi would venture out of the forest more.

   5%
4. D

   Too Speculative3% picked this

   Okapis moved into this forest region because their preferred foliage is more abundant there than

   We never heard about okapi moving into a forest region because their preferred foliage is more abundant. That makes some common sense (go where there's more of your preferred food). But, 1. we're given the impression that okapi just stick to the forest they're in, so they wouldn't ever be checking out other forests and doing "comparison shopping" 2. okapi can eat more than 100 species of plants, and even where their preferred foliage is abundant, they leave much of it uneaten. So it doesn't sound like a compelling reason for them to move forests.

   3%
5. E

   Correct61% picked this

   Okapis lived in this forest region when forestland in the area

   Why this is right

   This reinforces the final sentence of the passage. Zoologists' explanation for why the okapi can be found clinging to the inside of one specific forest (rather than spreading out through nearby forests) is that the okapi evolved during a time when there really weren't other forest options, so they learned to stay within their forest. Thus, if we find a population of okapi in northern Africa that is also staying very tightly wound around one forest, then zoologists would presumably explain it the same way: those okapi inhabited that forest back when it was the only local option for them, so they don't realize that nowadays there are other hospitable habitats.

   Skill tested: Application · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   61%