PrepTest 145, Section 1, Question 24
The French biologist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744–1829) outlined(453 more words not shown)
What is the primary function(13 more words not shown)
- Ato present various(14 more words not shown)
- Bto dismiss the(13 more words not shown)
- Cto explain how(17 more words not shown)
- Dto suggest several(14 more words not shown)
- Eto indicate the(13 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The third paragraph explains how the proposed transfer could happen. The last asks whether it does happen, then identifies Steele's evidence: a pattern of mutations interpreted as the trace of past transfers. It also tells us why other biologists remain unconvinced.
What we’re looking for
So the paragraph's main job is to describe the evidence and its status. The final reservation is part of that treatment, not the whole paragraph.
Working the answers
- A
Other biologists suggest alternative explanations, but the paragraph does not lay out various objections. Most of it describes the kind of evidence Steele's team claims to have found.
- B
Doubt is not dismissal. The author does not announce that the theory lacks any support or should be rejected. A disputed interpretation of evidence remains different from no evidence at all.
- C
No revision of the theory is proposed. The question is whether the claimed pattern supports the mechanism already described.
- D
The paragraph does not recommend several research directions. It reports claimed evidence and a reservation about interpreting it.
- ECorrect
It identifies circumstantial evidence—a distinctive mutation pattern—and explains what Steele's team thinks the pattern indicates. The closing sentence qualifies that interpretation by noting other possible explanations.
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