PrepTest 107, Section 3, Question 15
For the condor to survive in the wild,(73 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AThe condor as(9 more words not shown)
- BThe best way(12 more words not shown)
- CIt is almost(12 more words not shown)
- DIf more condor(15 more words not shown)
- EThe most feasible(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The condors need more surviving young. A breeding pair produces only a few eggs, so losing most of those eggs would leave little room for the large population increase the species needs.
How can we protect the eggs? The passage describes environmental dangers in the wild and offers one possible response: breed the birds in captivity, then return them to the wild. That could let the eggs get past dangers they would otherwise face.
I'd still want to know how well a captive breeding program would work for condors. We shouldn't assume that any species can be successfully bred just because people put it in captivity. But the question asks what the information most strongly supports, so our job is to stay within what the passage gives us. It offers captive breeding as one possible approach, not a guarantee of success or a comparison proving it better than every alternative.
What we’re looking for
Let's check what each choice adds. A possible rescue plan is not a promise that the birds will survive, and it isn't a claim that every other approach will fail.
Working the answers
- A
The passage does not establish inevitable extinction. It identifies a threat and offers a possible way to address it. If a breeding program or some other effective measure allowed the population to grow, the species might survive. A turns a serious problem into a certain outcome.
- B
“One possible way” does not mean “the best way.” We haven't compared captive breeding with every other method of protecting the birds or their eggs. The proposal could be useful without being the best available approach.
- C
The passage says the environmental dangers make hatching extremely unlikely in the wild. It doesn't tell us how difficult it would be to eliminate those dangers. Perhaps some could be removed; perhaps not. Calling elimination almost impossible requires information we were not given.
- DCorrect
Survival in the wild requires a much larger breeding population, and significantly increasing the number of birds requires more eggs to hatch. If the needed hatching doesn't occur, the population cannot grow as required, so the species will not survive in the wild.
Notice that this doesn't require choosing the best rescue plan. Whether the eggs hatch in a protected wild habitat or in captivity, hatching is still required for new birds. D captures that requirement without promising that a particular program succeeds.
- E
We have no basis for ranking one approach as the most feasible. There is also a difference between producing more eggs and getting more of the existing eggs to hatch. The passage emphasizes that breeding pairs produce few eggs and that their successful hatching matters. It does not identify increasing egg production as the most practical solution.
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