PrepTest 119, Section 4, Question 11

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A
  Correct

  The two facing coasts have bands of the same rare ancient rock. That is the kind of geological match we were looking for. If those bands were once part of a connected landmass, finding them on the now-separated coasts would make sense.

  The details matter: ancient rock bears on the distant past, the same type creates a specific match, and rare makes the match more informative than finding an ordinary widespread material in both places. This doesn't prove the continents were joined, but it supports that hypothesis.

• B

  Similarity between people living in the regions today doesn't require a former land connection. People could have traveled between the regions by boat or had ancestors who did. B concerns present human populations, not a geological trace tying these coastlines together in the distant past.

• C

  Similar climates don't establish that the land was once joined. Separated places could have similar climates because of their geographical positions. The hypothesis needs a past physical connection, and a present climatic resemblance doesn't establish one.

• D

  Languages can spread through contact between people without the continents themselves having been connected. Calling the groups old doesn't turn a cultural resemblance into geological evidence. As with B, human movement or communication gives us another way this similarity could arise.

• E

  This is worth considering because living things might supply evidence of an old connection. But closely resembling plants needn't be the same species, share the relevant ancestry, or be rare in other places. Nor does E establish an ancient connection between these particular coasts.

  Compare that with A's specific match between rare ancient rock bands in the two relevant locations. E gives a resemblance that could have other explanations; A gives a much more distinctive piece of evidence for the proposed shared history.