PrepTest 141, Section 1, Question 7
Charles Darwin objected to all attempts to reduce(440 more words not shown)
The primary purpose of the(3 more words not shown)
- Aargue in favor(5 more words not shown)
- Bsummarize a contemporary(1 more words not shown)
- Cdemonstrate that a(4 more words not shown)
- Dcriticize the proponents(4 more words not shown)
- Eexplain why a(5 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
What has the author spent the entire discussion doing? Challenging the view that natural selection explains every biological feature and every species' fate. The genetics and extinction material serves that purpose.
What we’re looking for
This is a purpose question, so we can predict the action rather than repeat the whole main point: demonstrate that a particular view is wrong. Keep the target on the view itself. Criticizing an account isn't necessarily an attack on the people who hold it.
Working the answers
- A
The author isn't primarily advancing a new hypothesis. The evidence is used to expose limits in an existing explanation.
- B
A debate may form the background, but the author doesn't merely summarize both sides. The discussion argues against the strict constructionist position.
- CCorrect
The two counterexamples are meant to demonstrate that the strict constructionists' all-encompassing view is incorrect. This captures what the author is doing with the scientific evidence.
- D
The focus is the explanatory claim, not a criticism of its proponents as people. Calling it a traditional theory also misses the opening distinction: Darwin himself did not make the exclusive claim these followers make.
- E
Recent prominence is mentioned at the beginning, but the author never explains why strict constructionism has become popular. Its popularity is background, not the problem the discussion tries to solve.
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