PrepTest 101, Section 4, Question 18
When the same habitat types (forests, oceans, grasslands,(450 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(15 more words not shown)
- AA remote subgroup(21 more words not shown)
- BInvestigation of a(22 more words not shown)
- CA correlation between(14 more words not shown)
- DResearchers find more(13 more words not shown)
- EMost of the(15 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The favored explanation depends on species forming faster in the tropics, with extinction not canceling that advantage. My first thought is: what if the rate isn't actually higher there? That would hurt the explanation.
What we’re looking for
We don't have to find that exact objection. The question lets us take new information as true and ask whether it undermines the proposed process.
Working the answers
- A
An isolated subgroup becoming unable to interbreed with the original population is the mechanism working. This supports speciation rather than weakening it.
- B
Several species sharing resources fits the climatic-stability discussion. It doesn't show that tropical groups fail to survive and form new species.
- C
This would support the species-energy hypothesis's previously untested mechanism. But both processes could contribute to diversity: a link between sunlight, population size, and extinction doesn't rule out a difference in the formation of new species.
- D
More undiscovered arctic species than expected means an earlier count was incomplete. It doesn't establish equal formation rates or erase the overall pole-to-equator difference.
- ECorrect
Paragraph 6 says isolated tropical groups have better odds of lasting long enough to adapt and become new species. Rapid extinction among most isolated mammalian subgroups in a tropical zone challenges that survival step: groups that die quickly don't get the time they need.
This isn't conclusive. Some groups could survive, and we still lack an arctic comparison. But we only need to weaken the explanation, and this directly puts pressure on its proposed mechanism.
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