PrepTest 106, Section 1, Question 16
Poppy petals function to attract pollinating insects.(81 more words not shown)
The statements above, if true,(8 more words not shown)
- APollinating insects are(6 more words not shown)
- BEven if cut(16 more words not shown)
- CFlowers of all(17 more words not shown)
- DThe pollen on(16 more words not shown)
- EPoppy plants are(17 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Cut the flower, and you've triggered the same process that makes a pollinated flower wilt. That's the connection to follow. Pollination releases a substance; that substance makes the petals wilt within a day or two. Cutting an unpollinated flower releases the very same substance. We should therefore expect its petals to wilt soon, too.
Contrast that with the flower that stays on the plant without being pollinated. As long as the plant can nourish it, its petals can stay fresh for a week or more. So the passage gives us two different ways to start the quick wilting process, and cutting is one of them.
What we’re looking for
We're asked what these statements most strongly support. We don't need to argue with the facts or supply our own knowledge of flowers. Our prediction is simply that cutting an unpollinated poppy will tend to make it wilt as pollination would.
Working the answers
- A
This sounds plausible, but attracting insects while fresh doesn't establish that the petals stop attracting them when wilted. What draws the insects: the shape, the color, something else? The passage doesn't tell us. An insect might still respond to a wilted flower. We have much more direct support for the connection between cutting and wilting than for this claim about insect behavior.
- BCorrect
Giving the cut flower nutrients doesn't undo the trigger described in the passage. Cutting releases the same substance that makes a pollinated flower wilt within one or two days. That supports expecting the cut petals to wilt within a few days even when nutrients are available. Notice that the explanation isn't merely that cutting separates the flower from its food supply; the passage identifies a substance that causes wilting.
- C
We've learned about poppies, not every flowering plant. Nothing establishes that a rose or a tulip releases this substance when cut. Allowing the amount to vary doesn't solve that problem: the choice still assumes all plants release it.
- D
This invents a mechanism. Pollination triggers the release of a substance, and that substance causes wilting. We aren't told that pollen itself blocks the petals from absorbing nutrients. We also aren't told that the released substance works by blocking nutrient absorption. Knowing the cause of wilting here doesn't tell us every step in how it happens.
- E
Again, we don't know how the substance causes wilting. The petals might wilt even while the plant continues drawing nutrients from soil or water. A claim about the petals' condition doesn't establish that the entire plant has lost that ability.
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