PrepTest 102, Section 4, Question 20
In some ill-considered popularizations of interesting current research,(50 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(10 more words not shown)
- AArguing that there(19 more words not shown)
- BArguing that Earth(23 more words not shown)
- CArguing that the(26 more words not shown)
- DClaiming that some(24 more words not shown)
- EArguing that not(24 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The surprising claim isn't simply that apes could have language abilities. It's that they could have a useful capacity and never use it.
I might question what “capacity” means here. Think of a dog responding to the word “walk” without being able to say it. Recognizing something and fully using a language aren't automatically the same ability. That makes me want more detail before accepting the comparison.
But the task isn't to settle animal language. The author compares the supposed unused language capacity with an animal having flight-ready wings yet never flying. The analogy is meant to make the first claim seem implausible: why would a useful biological ability sit entirely unused?
What we’re looking for
For the parallel, saying “it uses an analogy” won't get us far if every choice does that. My prediction is still fairly broad: look for a comparison centered on a capability that is present but never exercised. The particular organs or abilities can change, as long as the relationship stays the same.
Working the answers
- A
Humans never sleeping and a lion species not eating meat both concern the absence of familiar behavior. But neither part expressly gives the group a useful capacity and then says it never exercises that capacity. The original's contrast is between possessing an ability and leaving it unused, not merely between expected behavior and unusual behavior.
- B
An alien visit and explorers reaching North America are proposed events. The second part adds the absence of city founding afterward. We aren't given a biological ability that exists but has never been used. Having an analogy is only the broad format; the relationship being compared is different.
- CCorrect
Telekinetic powers in the human brain match language capacity in the apes: a proposed ability that nobody has exercised. The insect's legs match the flight-ready wings: bodily equipment for an activity. Never using the legs to walk matches never using the wings to fly. Both comparisons portray a useful biological capacity as strangely untouched. We don't have to accept that telekinetic powers exist; it is the claim being compared, just as unused language capacity is the claim the original challenges.
- D
Growing tobacco without smoking it and knowing how to brew alcohol without drinking it concern producing something without personally consuming it. People might grow a product for others, for example. The tobacco-growing activity is actually being performed, and the alcohol example distinguishes knowing a production method from consuming its product. That differs from possessing a biological capacity that is never exercised.
- E
Some car owners not driving allows other owners to drive. It doesn't match a group's useful capacity never being exercised. The gasoline comparison concerns a delay between invention and use as transportation fuel, not bodily equipment remaining unused. Both the scope of nonuse and the kind of relationship differ from the original.
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