PrepTest 117, Section 1, Question 19
The survival of nerve cells, as well as(453 more words not shown)
The passage describes a specific(9 more words not shown)
- AA certain kind(13 more words not shown)
- BDeveloping embryos initially(10 more words not shown)
- CIn addition to(13 more words not shown)
- DCertain organs contain(10 more words not shown)
- ECertain nerve cells(13 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
There are two hypotheses in the discovery story: many immature nerve cells are programmed to die, and a chemical from the mouse tumor stimulates nerve growth. Keep both in mind. Then ask which hypothesis has a specific experimental procedure described, rather than just a finding reported.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Levi-Montalcini proposed that the tumors released a substance that caused the nerves to grow (paragraph 2). The next sentence introduces tissue culture to investigate that hypothesis, followed by the growth observed near the added tumor. We get both the proposed explanation and the experiment used to test it.
- B
Excess production of embryonic nerve cells is reported as a research finding. The account doesn't describe a specific experiment testing that claim; the detailed tissue-culture procedure concerns the tumor's growth-stimulating chemical.
- C
Other factors exist, but no experiment investigating their existence is described.
- D
Some organs have especially high NGF concentrations. That's a finding in the final paragraph, not the hypothesis tested by the described experiment.
- E
The final paragraph describes muscle and other cells supplying NGF locally. It doesn't describe an experiment testing that particular relationship.
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