Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT127 S4 P2 Q15 Explanation

Inclusive Fitness Theory

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Passage

Mechanisms for recognizing kin are found throughout the plant and animal kingdoms, regardless of an organism's social or mental complexity. Improvements in the general understanding of these mechanisms have turned some biologists' attention to the question of why kin recognition occurs at all. One response to this question is offered by the the honeybee, most of whose members do not produce offspring and exist only to nurture relatives.

Inclusive fitness theory has also been applied usefully to new findings concerning cannibalism within animal species. Based on the theory, cannibals should have evolved to avoid eating their own kin because of the obvious genetic costs of such a practice. Spadefoot toad tadpoles provide an illustration. Biologists have found that all tadpoles when it becomes very hungry, apparently putting its own unique genetic makeup ahead of its siblings'.

But there may be other reasons why organisms recognize kin. For example, it has recently been found that tiger salamander larvae, also either omnivorous or cannibalistic, are plagued in nature by a deadly bacterium. Furthermore, it was determined that cannibal larvae are especially likely to be infected by eating diseased species members. which an organism preserves its own life, not as a means to aid in relatives' survival.

What this question is testing

Weaken

Your task

Find the choice that makes the argument's conclusion less likely to be true.

Common trap

Answers that look negative but attack a claim the argument never relied on.

Winning move

Find the assumption the argument depends on, then pick the choice that undermines it.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
15.

Which one of the following would, if true, most help to undermine the author’s evaluation in the last

Answer choices

  1. No Impact10% picked this

    Many tiger salamander larvae infected by the deadly bacterium are

    This isn't helping us to argue that they recognize kin, at least in part, to aid in their relatives' survival. It's also a very weak claim, since it's just saying "there have been at least 5-10 tiger salamanders who have been infected but are omnivorous".

  2. No Impact6% picked this

    The factor that determines which tiger salamander larvae are carnivorous and which are omnivorous is not contained in the

    This just talks about what makes a tiger salamander cannibalistic or omnivorous. All we care about is, among the cannibalistic salamanders, does kin recognition only help the individual avoid illness, or does it aid in relatives' survival too?

  3. Correct66% picked this

    Kin recognition helps tiger salamanders avoid inbreeding that may be life-threatening

    Why this is right

    This helps us to say that their kin recognition is a means to aid in relatives' survival. It says that by using kin recognition, we can avoid inbreeding, which means we can avoid something life-threatening to offspring. Your offspring are relatives. My kids are related to me. I'm related to my parents. So if kin recognition is helping salamanders' offspring avoid a life-threatening risk, then kin recognition is aiding in relatives' survival.

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

  4. No Impact3% picked this

    Noncannibalistic tiger salamanders tend to produce fewer offspring than cannibalistic

    We really don't care about noncannibalistic salamanders. We've only been told that the cannibalistic salamanders use kin recognition to avoid eating relatives (because relatives are more likely to have the worst version of a killer bacterium). The question is whether this kin recognition, by cannibalistic salamanders, helps aid their relatives survival. This answer has nothing to do with that.

  5. No Impact16% picked this

    Cannibalistic tiger salamanders are immune to certain diseases to which noncannibalistic

    If a cannibalistic salamander is immune to certain disease, does that somehow help us argue that their kin recognition is aiding in relatives' survival? Nope. It doesn't mention their relatives at all or talk about any effects of kin recognition.

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