Deer mice normally do not travel

Answer choices

1. A

   No Impact7% picked this

   The area to which the deer mouse was moved was dryer and more rocky than the area in

   There's no common sense reason why a dryer, rockier drop off location would make a mouse atypically good at finding its way home.

   7%
2. B

   Correct78% picked this

   The researchers released the deer mouse in a flat area across which their

   Why this is right

   This answer helps us speculate that the deer mouse found its way home by smelling the smoke of the campfire. Like we anticipated, this answer uses that Breadcrumb detail, that the researchers observed the mouse for several weeks. During that time, the mouse got used to the smell of their campfire, which was right by its home. When the researchers drop off the mouse 2 km from home, the mouse smells its way home by smelling its way back to the campsite. This fits with the paradoxical background fact that deer mice normally could never find their way home from that distance; but these deer mice are taking advantage of an unusual circumstance -- the campfire of some humans that have lived near the mouse's nest for the past 3 weeks.

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

   78%
3. C

   No Impact4% picked this

   There were very few deer mice in the area to which the deer

   There's no common sense reason why being dropped off in a location with very few mice would help a mouse to be atypically good at finding its way home.

   4%
4. D

   No Impact5% picked this

   The researchers had moved the deer mouse in a small dark box, keeping the mouse calm

   There's no common sense reason why being transported in a chill dark space would make a mouse atypically good at finding its way home.

   5%
5. E

   Deepens Paradox6% picked this

   Animals that prey on deer mice were common in the area to which the deer

   There's no common sense reason why being dropped off in an area where a lot of your predators live would make a mouse atypically good at finding its way home. It would certainly heighten your motivation to get home. But you'd be sufficiently motivated to get home even without that factor. These deer mice simply don't possess the ability to get home from 2 km away, usually, whether they deeply want to or not.

   6%