PrepTest 127, Section 4, Question 15
Mechanisms for recognizing kin are found throughout the(466 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(17 more words not shown)
- AMany tiger salamander(9 more words not shown)
- BThe factor that(21 more words not shown)
- CKin recognition helps(11 more words not shown)
- DNoncannibalistic tiger salamanders(9 more words not shown)
- ECannibalistic tiger salamanders(11 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The final sentence says salamander kin recognition can be explained as protecting the individual's own life, rather than aiding relatives' survival. To challenge that, I'd look for a survival benefit to the relatives that depends on recognizing kin.
What we’re looking for
The target is that explanation of recognition. A new fact about salamander diet or disease won't automatically address it.
Working the answers
- A
Noncannibals can become infected without undermining the particular infection risk cannibals face from eating close relatives. A doesn't establish a kin-protecting function of recognition.
- B
What determines diet is different from why recognizing relatives is useful. A nongenetic cause of the dietary difference doesn't answer the latter question.
- CCorrect
Avoiding inbreeding would help offspring survive, so kin recognition would protect family members as well as the individual. This is broader than simply sparing a sibling from being eaten: offspring are relatives, too. It challenges the final sentence's self-preservation-only explanation without requiring us to deny the infection risk.
- D
A difference in offspring numbers between the two dietary groups doesn't explain what recognizing kin does for either group.
- E
Immunity to certain diseases doesn't establish immunity to the particular deadly bacterium, or show that recognition serves relatives' survival. It doesn't supply the challenge C gives us.
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