PrepTest 139, Section 3, Question 26
Calvaria major is a rare but once-abundant tree(473 more words not shown)
It can be most logically(36 more words not shown)
- Aessentially correct, but(4 more words not shown)
- Binitially implausible, but(5 more words not shown)
- Can example of(11 more words not shown)
- Dlaudable for its(8 more words not shown)
- Ean attempt to(11 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
What was Temple trying to explain? The apparent absence of new trees after the dodo disappeared. He assumed that Calvaria major had lost the ability to reproduce, then proposed that the missing bird explained that loss.
What we’re looking for
But Strahm found many trees younger than three centuries, and Speke found germination without abrasion. So the problem with this version of the hypothesis starts before the proposed cause: the complete loss of reproduction never happened. That is different from the genuine decline in the tree's population.
Working the answers
- A
This is not just a basically correct account with a few details wrong. Its central claim that reproduction had stopped is contradicted by the younger trees and continuing germination.
- B
The author initially presents a plausible idea and later gives counterevidence. This reverses that direction by calling the hypothesis vindicated.
- C
The tree study was outside Temple's principal bird research, but that true background detail does not make the hypothesis a valuable scientific achievement in the author's evaluation. The question asks how the author regards this challenged explanation.
- D
The author does not praise its precision or attention to historical detail. The timing helped Temple form the hypothesis, but later findings undermine the inference he drew from it.
- ECorrect
The supposed state of affairs is the tree's inability to reproduce after the dodo vanished. Reproduction actually continued. Temple was therefore trying to explain a complete reproductive failure that did not exist, even though the population decline itself was real.
More Reading Comprehension questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.