PrepTest 104, Section 3, Question 18
Homing pigeons can be taken from their lofts(451 more words not shown)
Information in the passage supports(24 more words not shown)
- AIt has been(9 more words not shown)
- BIt seems unlikely(13 more words not shown)
- CIt has not,(15 more words not shown)
- DIt seems unlikely(14 more words not shown)
- EIt is not(16 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The first alternative is tracking the outward journey. The writer calls it unlikely: disrupting magnetic information or conscious tracking doesn't produce the expected loss of orientation. But the paragraph ends by pointing out a combined experiment that hasn't been performed. Keep that remaining uncertainty in view.
Working the answers
- A
“Conclusively ruled out” goes beyond the evidence. The unperformed combined test leaves open whether disrupting all the proposed sources of information together would make a difference.
- B
We do have theoretical models: an internal magnetic compass, or conscious tracking of movements and timing. The problem is the experimental results, not an inability to imagine a mechanism.
- CCorrect
The tests haven't established the proposed explanation, but the writer stops short of eliminating it. If pigeons could fall back on one system when another was disrupted, testing the disruptions separately might miss that. The missing combined experiment helps explain why the conclusion remains “seems unlikely.”
- D
This reverses the evidence. The experiments create doubt; they aren't presented as recent support for the theory.
- E
The paragraph describes several tests and specifies another one to perform. It doesn't reject the theory because suitable experiments are too difficult to design.
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