PrepTest 109, Section 1, Question 8
Few animals brave the midday heat of the(47 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(13 more words not shown)
- AThe chief predators(12 more words not shown)
- BThe cues that(12 more words not shown)
- COther scavengers remove(14 more words not shown)
- DThe temperature inside(16 more words not shown)
- ESilver ants cool(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why go looking for food when the heat could kill you?
The silver ants can venture out at midday, but the passage makes clear that they aren't immune to the heat. So I wouldn't explain their behavior simply by saying the hot conditions pose no danger. They do face a risk. The question is why that might still be the time they choose.
Perhaps their predators have retreated from the sun. The ants could be trading one danger for another, and the heat might be preferable to getting eaten. Or perhaps waiting until it cools down means losing the food: other scavengers might take the corpses first. Either possibility could make midday attractive despite the risk.
What we’re looking for
The stem asks which choice least helps explain the timing. Four choices will give us some reason to venture out then; the answer will do the least to account for that choice of time. An explanation needn't show that midday is perfect in every respect. It needs to make sense of choosing it over some alternative.
Working the answers
- A
The ants' chief predators are sheltering from the midday sun. That gives the ants a benefit to being outside then: less exposure to those predators. Midday can carry a heat risk while avoiding a different serious risk. This fits one of our predictions and helps explain the timing.
- B
Waiting until later in the afternoon would make navigation less reliable. If going out earlier makes it easier to find their way, that is a reason not to postpone the trip until the day cools.
B doesn't explain every possible timing choice, including why not the morning. But the stem only asks whether it helps. It supplies a disadvantage of a later departure, so it has some explanatory value.
- C
Waiting for cooler temperatures could mean missing the food. Other scavengers take the remaining corpses as the afternoon cools, so the ants have a reason to get there first. This matches our food-competition prediction: the safer temperature could come with an empty feeding ground.
- D
Staying inside isn't necessarily the cooler option. If the nest is even hotter than the surface during the hottest part of the day, leaving could reduce the ants' exposure to heat while letting them look for food. D changes our comparison between remaining in the nest and venturing outside.
- ECorrect
This describes a way the ants cool themselves while outside. It could help us understand how they tolerate some heat, but it doesn't explain why they choose midday rather than another time.
Nothing says the breezes or dried vegetation are available only at midday, or that using them then gives the ants a special advantage. The other answers identify a reason to prefer going out at that time or a cost of waiting or staying inside. E gives us a cooling technique without the timing connection.
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