PrepTest 104, Section 4, Question 5
Ticks attach themselves to host animals to feed.(49 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- ADeer ticks all(17 more words not shown)
- BDeer ticks sometimes(9 more words not shown)
- CDeer ticks that(12 more words not shown)
- DWhite-footed mice to(12 more words not shown)
- EWhite-footed mice are(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The time window connects these facts. The ticks stay attached until they've fed to capacity, and these deer ticks drop off between noon and sunset. So they finish feeding during that window, regardless of when they first attached.
Now add the mice's schedule. They spend all daylight hours in their underground nests, and noon to sunset falls within those hours. The ticks must be finishing their meal while their hosts are in their nests. We don't need to picture sleeping mice; being in the nest is what we're told.
What we’re looking for
We're asked what follows from the statements. Expect an answer connecting the feeding or dropping-off time to the mice's location. The individual facts are simple; the work is putting them together.
Working the answers
- A
Attachment and detachment aren't the same event. We know when these ticks drop off, but the passage expressly allows that to happen regardless of when they attached. Nothing says they all begin feeding during the same part of the day. A shared finishing window doesn't establish a shared starting window.
- B
This conflicts with the stated rule. The ticks drop off after feeding to capacity, “and not before then.” A tick that hasn't fed at all hasn't met that condition. Stick with the dropping-off behavior described in the passage; we don't need to introduce a separate scenario in which someone physically removes a tick.
- CCorrect
Follow the tick to the moment it drops off. That happens between noon and sunset. Where is its white-footed mouse host then? In its underground nest, because the mouse spends all daytime hours there. So the tick drops off in that nest. The answer gives us the location that follows from combining the tick's schedule with the mouse's schedule.
- D
We aren't told what the mouse notices. It could be aware of the tick or unaware of it while all the feeding, timing, and location facts remain true. Knowing where the mouse spends the day doesn't tell us what it senses.
- E
Nothing establishes a stable number of ticks across seasons. There could be many at one time of year and few at another, with every tick still following the described pattern. A rule about when feeding ticks drop off doesn't tell us how many ticks there are.
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