PrepTest 120, Section 2, Question 23
Until recently, biologists were unable to explain the(439 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(20 more words not shown)
- AMost pathogens capable(11 more words not shown)
- BMost pathogens transmitted(13 more words not shown)
- CMost pathogens that(11 more words not shown)
- DMost hosts that(13 more words not shown)
- EMost pathogens transmitted(11 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The new explanation depends on successful transmission making up for the cost of incapacitating a host. My first prediction is evidence that these pathogens can't keep succeeding after leaving that host. I want evidence that incapacitating the original host interferes with that success, rather than another example of a pathogen doing well.
Working the answers
- A
This supports the biologists. Death-causing pathogens achieving reproductive success is what their explanation allows.
- B
Failing to overwhelm the new host isn't the same as failing to reproduce there. The pathogen might reproduce and spread while leaving that host relatively well. The hypothesis doesn't require every new infection to incapacitate its host.
- C
This concerns pathogens that don't incapacitate their hosts. Their lack of success wouldn't undermine the proposed route to success for those that do.
- D
High concentrations in gravely sick hosts fit the scenario the biologists describe. This doesn't show that subsequent transmission fails to produce evolutionary success.
- ECorrect
If most pathogens arriving from incapacitated hosts cannot reproduce in the new hosts, onward transmission won't deliver the reproductive success the explanation needs. That challenges the proposed benefit of spreading beyond a severely affected host. It needn't show that no pathogen ever succeeds to be the strongest challenge here.
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