PrepTest 113, Section 2, Question 9
Psychologist: Although studies of young children have revealed(43 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(5 more words not shown)
- Alanguage acquisition can(4 more words not shown)
- Binnate mechanisms are(6 more words not shown)
- Clanguage acquisition is(6 more words not shown)
- Dparents and peers(12 more words not shown)
- Einnate mechanisms play(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Both influences matter. The next question is how much each matters.
The environmental part is easy to picture: imagine one child surrounded by Spanish and another surrounded by English. The language each hears gives us a concrete example of what the psychologist means by environment. But accepting an environmental influence doesn't rule out an inborn capacity to acquire language.
At first, “innate” might sound as though a particular language must be built in. That isn't what we need to take from the passage. An ability to learn language and the environment that supplies the language could both contribute. The psychologist explicitly gives us both influences, so we should accept that starting point rather than force a choice between only one or the other.
What we’re looking for
To complete the passage, I'd predict a question about their relative importance. Are the contributions roughly balanced, or does one matter much more? Thinking of a 50–50 split versus a 90–10 split makes the comparison concrete, without claiming those exact percentages exist or can be assigned here. We need a proposed question about the balance, not an answer that pretends the balance has already been determined.
Working the answers
- A
Whether language acquisition can ever be fully explained is a much broader question. The passage has identified two contributing influences and is setting up further investigation of them. A shifts from their relative contribution to whether complete explanation is possible at all.
- B
The psychologist has already said innate mechanisms play a role. Asking whether they contribute would repeat a point given as settled. The unfinished sentence calls for the next reasonable question, not a rephrasing of one of the stated facts.
- C
The passage gives the environment a role too. Asking whether innate mechanisms alone explain acquisition would discard that stated starting point. The useful comparison is between two acknowledged contributors, not whether one is the sole contributor.
- D
Parents and peers could be parts of a child's environment, so I can see why this is tempting. But it narrows the environmental side to those particular people. The passage hasn't singled them out or said they exhaust the relevant environment. E keeps the comparison between the broader kinds of influence the psychologist actually introduced.
- ECorrect
Read it into the sentence: the question to study is whether innate mechanisms play a more important role than the child's immediate environment. That directly compares the two influences already identified.
It doesn't conclude that innate mechanisms do matter more. The word “whether” keeps the comparison open for investigation. That is the next step we predicted after learning that both contribute.
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