PrepTest 125, Section 2, Question 16
"Good hunter" and "bad hunter" are standard terms(41 more words not shown)
If the statements above are(10 more words not shown)
- ASome cats that(9 more words not shown)
- BA smaller number(11 more words not shown)
- CAll cats that(8 more words not shown)
- DSome cats that(7 more words not shown)
- EAll cats that(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A muscular cat isn't automatically a good hunter.
The passage says every good hunter has a high muscle-to-fat ratio. That tells us something about cats we already know are good hunters. It doesn't tell us that every muscular cat can hunt well. A cat could have plenty of muscle and still be unable to catch prey for some other reason.
What we’re looking for
We also know most wild cats are good hunters, and at least some domestic cats are. Keep those facts as given; we don't need our own opinions about house cats or lions. This is a must-be-true question, so we'll test each answer against the information we actually have. Could the answer be false while all these facts remain true? If so, it isn't our answer.
Working the answers
- A
Perhaps some muscular cats are bad hunters, but perhaps all muscular cats are good hunters. The passage allows either possibility. It gives us no example of a cat with a high muscle-to-fat ratio that isn't a good hunter, so we can't establish that such a cat exists.
- B
How many domestic cats are there? How many wild cats? We aren't told. Imagine 100 wild cats, 60 of which are good hunters, and 1,000 domestic cats, 100 of which are good hunters. That fits both 'most' wild cats and 'some' domestic cats, while giving us more domestic good hunters. The total populations matter. Also, 'some' doesn't mean 'only a few,' and cats outside the good-hunter group might have high muscle-to-fat ratios too. We have no basis for this numerical comparison.
- C
We aren't told that bad hunters have low muscle-to-fat ratios. All good hunters have high ratios, but that doesn't exclude bad hunters from having high ratios as well. C turns a fact about good hunters into an unsupported rule about bad hunters.
- DCorrect
Start with the domestic cats that are good hunters. There are at least some. Every one of those cats must have a high muscle-to-fat ratio, because every good hunter does. So at least some cats with high muscle-to-fat ratios are domestic. The two stated facts fit together directly.
- E
Having a high muscle-to-fat ratio doesn't establish the hunting ability described here. Good hunters have both that ratio and the ability to kill prey weighing up to half their own weight. E extends the ability to every cat with that ratio, including cats we haven't established are good hunters.
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