PrepTest 111, Section 1, Question 19
Lathyrism, a debilitating neurological disorder caused by the(39 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AThe physiology of(9 more words not shown)
- BThe rats did(14 more words not shown)
- CNot all animal(6 more words not shown)
- DMost of the(7 more words not shown)
- ELaboratory conditions are(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why didn't the rats show the same symptoms?
The passage connects eating this legume with a neurological disorder in domestic animals in some countries. Researchers then tried giving the plant to rats, but the rats didn't develop the symptoms used to study that disorder. We don't need to know the plant or the disease beforehand to recognize that contrast.
What we’re looking for
My first takeaway is that the animals don't all seem to respond the same way. The rats' failure to show symptoms makes them a poor match for the affected animals in these attempts. The question asks what is most strongly supported, so I'd look for that limited difference. We shouldn't turn it into a claim that rats can never develop the disorder or invent a particular reason the experiments failed.
Working the answers
- A
One different response doesn't establish radically different physiology overall. Rats and the affected animals could share many other features. The evidence concerns susceptibility to this disorder, not the entire workings of their bodies.
- B
Different amounts of the plant might be worth investigating, but no amounts are given. We can't conclude that the rats ate less simply because they didn't show the symptoms. B offers a possible explanation as though the passage had established it.
- CCorrect
The contrast supports unequal susceptibility among animal species. The disorder is widespread among some domestic animals, while attempts to produce its symptoms in rats by giving them the plant have generally failed.
C stays with that difference instead of claiming to know its cause. It also doesn't claim rats are completely immune in every possible circumstance. That makes it a better fit than a sweeping biological conclusion or a guess about what the researchers did differently.
- D
Knowing the disorder is widespread among domestic animals in some countries doesn't tell us how those animals compare with all the wild animals that can contract it. The passage gives no count of the full group. We can't infer that most susceptible animals are domestic from information about domestic animals alone.
- E
The unsuccessful attempts used rats. They don't establish that the laboratory setting prevents the disorder from developing. A study using a different animal might produce the symptoms in a laboratory. E shifts from a result with these animals to a broad claim about the setting.
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