PrepTest 126, Section 3, Question 5
The star-nosed mole has a nose that ends(43 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- ABoth worms and(4 more words not shown)
- BThe star-nosed mole(10 more words not shown)
- CThe star-nosed mole(12 more words not shown)
- DOnly animals that(9 more words not shown)
- EThe star-nosed mole(6 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Picture the mole's nose with little tentacles extending from it. Those tentacles detect electric fields from other animals, helping the mole find prey despite its poor eyesight. That's the connection to follow: a signal from the prey, a receptor that detects the signal, and a mole that can use it to hunt.
Worms and insects are the examples of prey it finds this way. Then they must supply the kind of signal the tentacles detect. Otherwise, how would detecting electric fields help the mole locate those particular animals?
What we’re looking for
We're looking for what the information most strongly supports. There's no argument to attack here. Stay with what this description tells us about the mole's hunting method, and be careful about answers that expand one useful sense into the only sense the animal ever uses.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Both worms and insects produce electric fields. The passage says receptors detect fields produced by other animals, enabling the mole to detect prey such as worms and insects. A supplies the fact implicit in that explanation: those prey animals produce something the receptors can detect. Without that signal, the described method wouldn't explain finding them.
- B
Poor eyesight doesn't mean no useful eyesight. The mole might still use its limited vision while hunting, and survival also involves more than hunting. Perhaps vision helps it find a place to make a nest. We don't know that it does; the point is that the passage hasn't ruled out those possibilities. “Does not rely at all” goes much further than “poor-sighted.”
- C
We haven't been told what role smell plays. Detecting electric fields could work alongside another sense. Saying that the tentacles are crucial doesn't mean that smell contributes nothing to hunting.
- D
We've learned about one animal that hunts using these tentacles. We haven't learned that only hunters can have them. Another kind of animal might have similar receptors and use them for a different purpose. D adds a restriction across animals that the passage never establishes.
- E
Detecting a field doesn't mean being unable to produce one. The passage explains what the mole detects, not whether the mole itself gives off an electric field. Either possibility is left open.
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