PrepTest 119, Section 1, Question 20
The pronghorn, an antelope-like mammal that lives on(465 more words not shown)
The passage mentions each of(26 more words not shown)
- Afossils of extinct(11 more words not shown)
- Bthe absence of(6 more words not shown)
- Cthe present-day preference(5 more words not shown)
- Dthe apparent need(13 more words not shown)
- Ethe occurrence of(5 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
This is an EXCEPT question: four choices supply evidence used to support the extinct-predator explanation. We want the one that doesn't.
What we’re looking for
Keep the explanation in view. The idea is that the pronghorn's speed made sense when different predators were around. The evidence includes those extinct predators, other pronghorn behaviors that fit past threats, and similar persistence in other animals.
Working the answers
- A
The fossil record identifies extinct predators believed to have been fast enough to catch a pronghorn. That supplies a possible historical reason for its speed, so A belongs among the supporting evidence.
- BCorrect
We aren't told that carnivores are absent from the pronghorn's current environment. We're told that current predators aren't fast enough to chase it down and that it has nothing to fear from them. B changes a lack of effective threat into a lack of carnivores. The present mismatch between speed and threat also introduces the puzzle; it isn't itself evidence identifying the extinct predators that explain the speed.
- C
Choosing athletic mates fits the expectation that speed and endurance once mattered to survival. This is part of the support.
- D
Continued herding appears to be another response to a vanished threat. That supports the same kind of historical explanation for the pronghorn's behavior.
- E
The fish and squirrel examples show that defensive behavior can persist after the relevant predator disappears. The final paragraph explicitly uses those examples to increase the theory's plausibility.
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