PrepTest 110, Section 1, Question 16
In the eighteenth century the French naturalist Jean(442 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(9 more words not shown)
- ADeer have antlers(10 more words not shown)
- BAnteaters developed long(16 more words not shown)
- CPotatoes produced from(16 more words not shown)
- DLions raised in(16 more words not shown)
- EPups born to(16 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
What would make Lamarck look right? An animal uses an organ in a way that changes what its offspring inherit. The giraffe example gives us the model: ancestors stretch to reach leaves, and that stretching supposedly accounts for longer necks in later generations.
What we’re looking for
We want evidence of that connection. Merely showing that animals differ, or that a useful characteristic helps them survive, won't do it.
Working the answers
- A
Antlers help deer survive and reproduce. That explains an advantage of the trait; it doesn't say using an organ creates a change that gets passed down.
- BCorrect
Stretching the snout to reach buried ants closely parallels stretching the neck to reach leaves. The choice says anteaters developed long snouts because they stretched them. If true, that would support the same use-based explanation Lamarck offers for giraffes. We are assessing what the example would support, not whether we personally believe it happens.
- C
This compares potatoes produced from different kinds of genes. It doesn't describe a potato acquiring resistance through its experience and passing that acquired resistance to offspring.
- D
Captive lions themselves have a weaker sense of direction. We aren't told that their captivity changes what their offspring inherit. An effect within one animal's life is not enough.
- E
The pups differ in aggression, but why? Nothing says their parents acquired that difference through use or disuse and passed it down. A difference between offspring leaves the crucial mechanism unexplained.
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