PrepTest 155, Section 1, Question 3
When frightened by hunters in a truck, healthy(61 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(12 more words not shown)
- AAnimals that are(11 more words not shown)
- BYoung gazelles and(18 more words not shown)
- CTo animals that(14 more words not shown)
- DA healthy gazelle(19 more words not shown)
- EWhile not able(20 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why advertise your location to a lion when you're trying to get away?
The gazelle's jumping seems to do two unhelpful things: attract attention and use energy that could go toward running faster. Yet we're told this is a defensive behavior. There must be some benefit we're missing.
The contrast with trucks isn't necessarily strange. Evading a hunter and evading a lion could call for different moves. Also, the passage describes healthy gazelles; it doesn't say an unhealthy gazelle could never run away or jump. We shouldn't turn that description into a claim about every other gazelle.
My first guess is that the jumps help the gazelle dodge the lion. Think of a receiver changing direction to get past a defender. Perhaps the movements make the animal harder to track or catch. That's a possibility to investigate, not something the passage has established.
What we’re looking for
The question asks us to resolve the apparent paradox. We need a defensive benefit that could make jumping worthwhile despite the lost speed and extra visibility. It needn't be the exact dodging benefit I guessed.
Working the answers
- A
Calling the behavior apparently irrational doesn't explain it. We already know why it looks puzzling to us. What we want to learn is how drawing attention and using energy could help the gazelle survive. A repeats the general puzzle without supplying a benefit.
- B
This concerns young or unhealthy gazelles reacting to people or machines. Our puzzle concerns a healthy gazelle reacting to a predator such as a lion. Learning that other gazelles also jump in other circumstances doesn't explain what the healthy gazelle gains from jumping here.
- CCorrect
This offers a different benefit from my dodging prediction. The jumps signal, in effect, 'I'm strong and hard to catch. Chasing me will waste your effort.' A lion that gets that message has a reason to choose an easier target. Drawing attention can therefore help the gazelle if the attention communicates that it is a poor animal to pursue. That makes the energy expenditure understandable as defense.
- D
Detecting the predator first could help the gazelle escape, but why then jump and draw the predator's attention? This tells us about the timing of detection without explaining the advantage of the behavior we're trying to understand.
- E
Coordinated group hunting explains how lions can hunt effectively even though gazelles run faster. It doesn't tell us how a gazelle's jumping interferes with that hunting or discourages pursuit. We still need a reason stotting helps the gazelle.
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