PrepTest 103, Section 1, Question 17
Henry: Some scientists explain the dance of honeybees(110 more words not shown)
In Winifred's response to Henry,(16 more words not shown)
- AIt addresses an(10 more words not shown)
- BIt provides evidence(6 more words not shown)
- CIt calls into(9 more words not shown)
- DIt points out(9 more words not shown)
- EIt proposes an(6 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why can't the bees have a backup? Even if a scent trail shows where food is, a dance could communicate the same information another way. If the scent trail faded, the other method might still help.
Henry treats the existence of the simpler method as a reason to reject the dance's proposed purpose. Winifred responds that animals often have more than one way to accomplish a critical task. She then gives an example: some bees can navigate by the Sun or by remembered landmarks.
The question asks what that example does in her response. It makes the general claim concrete. We don't just hear “animals have several methods”; we see one task, navigation, being accomplished in two ways.
What we’re looking for
So my prediction is evidence supporting Winifred's broader claim about multiple methods. That claim helps her explain why scent trails don't have to be the exclusive way honeybees communicate food locations.
Working the answers
- A
The example doesn't explain two possible meanings of “communicate the location.” The speakers understand the proposed purpose: telling other bees where food is. Their dispute is whether the scent trail rules out the dance serving that purpose, not what the phrase means.
- BCorrect
The general claim is that most animals have several ways to accomplish critical tasks. Navigation by the Sun or remembered landmarks gives a concrete instance of multiple methods for one task. It supports that general idea, which Winifred then applies to the possibility of honeybees using both scent trails and dance.
The example doesn't have to prove a claim about most animals all by itself. The question asks its role, and that role is to supply supporting evidence.
- C
Winifred doesn't deny Henry's observation that returning bees leave scent trails. She gives additional evidence showing why the existence of one useful method doesn't exclude another. Accepting someone's evidence while challenging the conclusion drawn from it is different from disputing the evidence's accuracy.
- D
Henry's premises and conclusion don't directly contradict one another. The bees could leave scent trails and the dance could, in principle, have some other purpose. The trouble is that the first fact doesn't establish the second. Winifred explains a possibility his inference overlooks, not a pair of his statements that cannot both be true.
- E
The navigation example doesn't propose a new purpose for the honeybees' dance. It helps defend the original food-communication explanation that Henry wants to reject. Using the Sun or landmarks describes alternative navigation methods in the example; it isn't an alternative explanation of the dance itself.
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