PrepTest 145, Section 1, Question 25
The French biologist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744–1829) outlined(453 more words not shown)
The passage most strongly suggests(12 more words not shown)
- AContrary to the(19 more words not shown)
- BSteele and his(13 more words not shown)
- CThe patterns of(27 more words not shown)
- DThe passing on(21 more words not shown)
- EUnless a hypothesis(16 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Separate what has been observed from what Steele hypothesizes. Reverse transcription is known in other contexts; in his account of immune cells, it is a proposed step. His team's claimed evidence consists of a mutation pattern interpreted as the signature of past events, rather than a direct observation of the whole process.
Working the answers
- A
The author does not endorse the conclusion that acquired characteristics probably are inherited. Describing Steele's claim while emphasizing unresolved alternatives does not supply that judgment.
- BCorrect
The distinction between hypothesized reverse transcription here and observations in other contexts supports this. Steele's team is inferring the proposed process from circumstantial signs, not reporting that it watched reverse transcription occur in immune cells.
- C
The author reports the team's interpretation of a pattern, then notes that other explanations may exist. This answer treats a virus's alteration of the DNA as what the pattern establishes. The virus's role remains part of the proposed mechanism.
- D
Studying a possible mechanism in the immune system does not establish that any inheritance of acquired characteristics would probably be confined there. No comparison with other bodily systems supports that restriction.
- E
The author says that, for evolutionary mechanisms, we must make do with circumstantial evidence. That is not a rule excluding hypotheses from science unless they are directly observed. Speculative status and scientific inquiry are not presented as mutually exclusive.
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