Reading Comprehension

PT147 · S2 · P1 · Q6 Muscle Memory

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Passage A Muscle memory is a puzzling phenomenon.

Topic

Muscle memory—why people regain muscle more quickly after losing it

Framework

Answer / Explain (both passages are examining potential explanations for the phenomenon of muscle memory)

Main Point

Both passages explore the question: Why do people quickly regain muscle after a break from training? Passage A proposes neural and psychological explanations, while Passage B presents recent scientific findings about persistent muscle cell nuclei as a potential mechanism for "muscle memory."

**Most Valuable Sentences:** - Passage A: (end P1) - Passage B: (end P3)

P1 (A): Introducing the Mystery of Muscle Memory

Muscle memory is a weird thing that bodybuilders often notice, but scientists barely talk about. After a break, people seem to gain muscle faster the second time—so there must be a real explanation.

P2 (A): Neural Explanation for Muscle Memory

One possible reason is that with training, you get better at using more muscle fibers because your neurons become more efficient. Even after taking a break, your nervous system may "remember" how to activate more fibers, making it easier to get strong again.

P3 (A): Psychological Explanation for Muscle Memory

Or maybe it’s not just physical: the first time you got strong, you were cautious. When you retrain, you’re more confident and push yourself faster, leading to quicker muscle gains.

6.

The author of passage B would be most likely to hold which one of the following views about the characterization of muscle memory offered in the first sentence of passage A?

  1. It confirms that bodybuilders' experiences

    Opposite

    Passage B shouldn't be agreeing with the statement. And Passage B was never denying that muscle memory exists, or saying we should doubt the claims of bodybuilders that it does exist.

    1% picked this

  2. It reflects a dichotomy between

    Opposite: dichotomy

    This answer, like (A), is suggesting that Passage B thinks that even though athletes think muscle memory is real, it's not really real at the cellular level. A dichotomy means a striking difference, and the author wouldn't say there's a striking difference between thinking that your body has muscle memory and what's happening on the cellular level with your muscle cells. Passage B totally accepts that muscle memory is real and provides the emerging cellular explanation for the phenomenon.

    16% picked this

  3. It would not be accepted

    Bad Match

    This answer is saying that most athletes who start re-training wouldn't agree that "muscle memory is a puzzling phenomenon". Rephrased, this answer is saying that most athletes who start re-training would say "muscle memory isn't a puzzling phenomenon". Most athletes embarking on re-training will probably say, "Muscle memory seems to exist; seems to be a real thing". But we don't know their opinion on whether or not it's a puzzling phenomenon, because that sentence isn't about whether or not muscle memory exists, it's about how to causally explain that it exists.

    1% picked this

  4. Correct

    It is less apt now

    Why this is right

    As we predicted, passage B would disagree that muscle memory is still a puzzling phenomenon. Its very first sentence says "Pumping up is easier for people who have been buff before (i.e. muscle memory) and now scientists think they know why". That sentence reveals that's it's no longer apt to call it a puzzling phenomenon, but it also reflects that we only recently figured it out.

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

    81% picked this

  5. It stems from a fundamental

    Out of Scope: principles of exercise

    The author of passage B never said anything like, "People only think muscle memory is a puzzling phenomenon because they don't understand principles of exercise psychology". Passage B isn't about psychology at all. It's about the physiological basis of muscle memory that we have recently discovered. Passage B would say, "It stems from a misunderstanding of what happens when muscles atrophy". Researchers had thought previously that the extra nuclei were killed during apoptosis, but a recent study in mice showed otherwise.

    2% picked this

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