PrepTest 105, Section 2, Question 6
Besides laying eggs in her own nest, any(80 more words not shown)
The statements above, if true,(8 more words not shown)
- AFemale wood ducks(14 more words not shown)
- BNesting female wood(16 more words not shown)
- CThe nesting boxes(13 more words not shown)
- DThe nesting boxes(22 more words not shown)
- ENesting boxes are(20 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The boxes are supposed to help ducks breed. Instead, they collect so many eggs that hardly any hatch. How does the helpful idea backfire?
Follow what triggers the extra egg-laying. A female sees another duck leave her nest and lays an egg there. Well-hidden natural nests make that behavior relatively rare. The boxes appear to remove that protection: they draw extra eggs until overcrowding defeats the original purpose.
What we’re looking for
My first inference is that the boxes are too easy for other ducks to find. We're asked what the passage most strongly supports, so look for something that follows from this visibility-and-crowding explanation. We should keep the inference tied to that mechanism rather than invent a different reason the boxes fail.
Working the answers
- A
Nothing says a duck uses a box only as a last resort. A duck might choose one even with natural sites available. We know what happens in the boxes, not that a shortage of natural alternatives is required before a duck will use one.
- B
Seeing other ducks gives a female an opportunity to lay extra eggs in their nests. But that doesn't establish that she is among the most successful breeders. The passage even describes how extra eggs can crowd nests and interfere with hatching. We lack the overall comparison this answer makes.
- C
More crowded doesn't necessarily mean smaller. A box with room for five eggs could be overwhelmed by 100 eggs, while a natural nest with room for two contains only one. The larger space would still be more crowded. The passage identifies extra eggs, not smaller dimensions, as the problem.
- DCorrect
This takes the visibility inference one step further: make the boxes harder for other ducks to see. The natural-nest comparison supports that improvement. Hidden nests experience relatively little parasitic egg-laying, so reducing visibility should help reduce the influx of extra eggs into the boxes.
That would address the overcrowding that keeps eggs from hatching. The answer promises greater effectiveness, not perfect breeding success or the elimination of every extra egg. That limited improvement fits the evidence.
- E
Habitat destruction isn't mentioned, and we aren't told that boxes are necessary to supplement natural sites. The current boxes' poor results don't by themselves prove that no artificial nesting aid could ever be needed. But neither do they establish this particular need or its proposed cause.
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