PrepTest 110, Section 1, Question 12
The term "blues" is conventionally used to refer(447 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(21 more words not shown)
- ATwo species of(32 more words not shown)
- BTwo species of(36 more words not shown)
- CTwo types of(35 more words not shown)
- DTwo species of(32 more words not shown)
- ETwo species of(30 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Start with the connection before comparing plants. Blues and spirituals share an important feature, and the writer links both to older cultural and religious traditions. My initial prediction is two things drawing from a common source.
What we’re looking for
That may leave several choices in play. We should also check what feature the older connection is supposed to explain.
Working the answers
- A
Only one cactus species evolves from the third species. We need a common older connection for both. The older species' different flowers also fail to account for a feature shared across the connection.
- B
Both may relate to an older species, which initially looks promising. But the focus is on different stem structures among otherwise similar plants. Our account focuses on a shared transformative feature in musical forms that seem different on the surface. B has the common source without the right comparison.
- C
This has a shared feature and common ancestry too. But it adds a recently discovered relationship and a proposal to reclassify the trees. We have no corresponding discovery or reclassification in the discussion. A tentative explanation of a resemblance doesn't match that proposed change.
- D
The direction is reversed. Here the third species evolves from one of the two. The ancestral traditions in our account precede the musical forms being compared; they aren't produced by one of them.
- ECorrect
The shrubs are blues and spirituals; the similar leaf structure is their shared transformative quality. Their relation to an older species matches the older cultural connection that may explain that quality. Superficially unalike fits the contrast between secular blues and religious spirituals, while may be due preserves the tentative link. This matches more of the relationship than our initial common-source prediction alone.
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