LR Drill Set 6, Question 7
Monitors (various lizards of the genus Varanus )(44 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- AMammalian carnivores are(6 more words not shown)
- BThere are more(14 more words not shown)
- CMonitors flourish only(9 more words not shown)
- DAll habitats hospitable(8 more words not shown)
- EIf a habitat(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Enough prey brings mammalian carnivores, and mammalian carnivores keep monitors out.
That's the connection between the first two statements. We aren't told why the lizards can't survive alongside these carnivores. Maybe the mammals eat the lizards; maybe they compete for food. We don't need to choose a biological explanation to apply the rule the passage gives us.
Try following a habitat with plenty of the relevant prey. The second statement puts mammalian carnivores there. The first then tells us monitors cannot survive there. So a place where monitors survive cannot have enough of that prey to support those carnivores.
The final statement adds a temperature-related limit: some places support mammals but not cold-blooded reptiles. That's another fact, but it doesn't erase or replace our earlier connection.
What we’re looking for
For this must-be-true question, I'd look for an answer linking the prey, the carnivores, and the monitors. We need something the rules establish, not a guess about which animals are more widespread.
Working the answers
- A
This says the two groups occur together, the opposite of the passage's first rule. Monitors cannot survive in habitats inhabited by mammalian carnivores. We shouldn't select an answer that places carnivores in every monitor habitat when the given relationship excludes that coexistence.
- B
Rules about which conditions support an animal don't tell us how many places meet those conditions. Some environments support mammals but not reptiles, but that doesn't count all the possible habitats for mammalian carnivores and monitors. We lack the information needed to say one total is larger than the other.
- CCorrect
If a place contained sufficient prey for mammalian carnivores, the carnivores would be there, and monitors couldn't survive. Therefore, anywhere monitors flourish must lack that sufficient supply. “Only” identifies a requirement for the monitors' presence. It doesn't promise that every place lacking the prey will support monitors; other requirements could still be missing.
- D
Nothing specifies the body temperature of the monitors' prey. They could eat a small supply of warm-blooded animals that is insufficient to support mammalian carnivores. The facts concern sufficient numbers of those carnivores' prey and certain habitat limits, not a universal diet rule for monitors.
- E
Carnivores themselves could explain the absence of monitors, even in a warm environment perfectly suitable for other cold-blooded animals. The passage says some mammal habitats are unsuitable for reptiles; it doesn't say every habitat with carnivores and no monitors has that problem. E turns one possible limitation into a required explanation.
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