PrepTest 150, Section 1, Question 24
It might reasonably have been expected that the(461 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AThe first paragraph(29 more words not shown)
- BThe first paragraph(28 more words not shown)
- CThe first paragraph(22 more words not shown)
- DThe second and(19 more words not shown)
- EThe second and(15 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Map what the paragraphs actually do. The first challenges the expectation that cooking would leave anatomy unchanged and proposes selection for efficient use of cooked food. The second examines teeth and jaws as possible effects of that change. The third considers whether cooking could also explain digestive features traditionally attributed to raw meat.
What we’re looking for
Our rough prediction is a claim followed by exploration of its anatomical consequences. The answer may call those consequences empirical implications: features we could look for or try to explain if cooking influenced evolution.
Working the answers
- A
The first paragraph does not lay out two predictions that are then separately confirmed and disconfirmed. The later paragraphs discuss possible anatomical effects, and neither follows the specific one-confirmed, one-rejected sequence described here.
- B
The second paragraph develops the cooking explanation through teeth and jaws; it does not introduce the competing raw-meat account. That alternative appears in the third paragraph, which calls for testing without describing an empirical test that would settle the issue. The proposed sequence does not match.
- C
Dental reduction is offered as a possible consequence of cooking, not an objection to the first paragraph's claim. The third paragraph is therefore not a response to that supposed objection.
- D
The later paragraphs do not compare predictions from two proposals set out in the first. They explore different anatomical features that may bear on the cooking claim. The raw-meat alternative is introduced only in the final paragraph.
- ECorrect
If cooking favored adaptations for efficient use of calorie-dense food, what changes might we expect in human anatomy? Smaller teeth and jaws are one possibility; the features of the gut are another. The second and third paragraphs explore those possible observable consequences. That is the empirical-implications relationship this answer describes.
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