PrepTest 111, Section 2, Question 15

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  We aren't told that biologists avoid philosophical questions. Their disagreement about how biology should be explained is exactly what we're discussing. A invents a shared reluctance instead of stating that disagreement.

• B
  Correct

  This connects the broader ideal of science with the dispute over whether biology fits it. Determinists seek universal laws; other biologists question whether those laws fully account for biological history. That's our prediction, expressed as a dispute over the reach of universal laws. It also brings the opening into the explanation more clearly than simply saying there are two groups.

• C

  This gets the development wrong. The recent shift is toward questioning the law-based approach, not newly adopting it. It also focuses on the biologists who imitate physics without capturing the opposing view developed through the swan example.

• D

  Experimental precision isn't compared. The issue is how to explain biological outcomes, not how accurately the two fields conduct experiments. Saying they employ similar approaches also misses the disagreement within biology.

• E

  We aren't told there has been little interaction between the disciplines. This changes the subject from competing explanations of biology to how often people in different fields interact.