PT150 S3 Q6 ExplanationThe waters surrounding Shooter's Island

Answer choices, explained

1. A

   No Impact0% picked this

   The ruined ships and boats around Shooter's Island have been there

   The background did tell us that the wreckage is what causes the water to be so still, so this answer reveals that the water has been potentially still for decades. Does that matter? Not really. The author's story would make sense whether the waters around Shooter's Island have been still for centuries or just a handful of years.

   0%
2. B

   No Impact5% picked this

   The number of juvenile waterbirds around Shooter's Island, as well as the number around each neighboring island, does not

   Because this is saying "dramatic fluctuations do not occur", it feels like a Defender answer on Necessary Assumption. Would it Weaken the argument if dramatic fluctuations did occur? Not really. The information we're given would be interpreted as an average, and it would still mean that on average the number of birds around Shooter's is similar to that of other islands, while the percentage of juveniles is much higher. There is a classic form of wrong answer on Strengthen / Weaken: variations occurs. Fluctuations happen. Cool? No one expects identical stasis, so telling us that changes occur / things vary is very uneventful.

   5%
3. C

   Correct64% picked this

   Waterbirds use still waters as nurseries for juveniles

   Why this is right

   This definitely strengthens the plausibility of the Author's Story. She was saying that these waterbirds are using the still waters around Shooter's Island as a nursery for juveniles, and this answer supports that speculation by saying that "waterbirds use still waters as nurseries for juveniles whenever possible". It's an unusual answer for Strengthen in that it strengthens so much (because of the powerful "whenever possible"), that it basically guarantees the conclusion is right.

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

   64%
4. D

   Too Weak25% picked this

   The waters around the islands neighboring Shooter's Island are much rougher than the waters

   We already knew that Shooter's Island was "exceptionally still", so telling us that other nearby islands are "less still than Shooter's" wouldn't be providing any new information. This answer just adds a little bit of oomph to the same idea: they're much less still. Okay, cool. But we were already accepting the water at Shooter's was atypically still; this isn't moving us any closer to thinking that "still water" is the reason that so many juveniles live there. Also, this answer would not strengthen nearly as much as (C), which basically proved the conclusion.

   25%
5. E

   Weakens5% picked this

   Waterbirds are typically much more abundant in areas that serve as nurseries for juvenile waterbirds than in

   Since we were told that Shooter's has about the same overall abundance of waterbirds as the other local areas do, this answer is making Shooter's Island sound less like a nursery. If nurseries typically have high overall bird populations, and Shooter's has an average overall bird population, then Shooter's doesn't sound like it matches the typical traits of a waterbird nursery.

   5%