PrepTest 155, Section 3, Question 18
This passage was adapted from an article published(449 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(21 more words not shown)
- AAt least some(8 more words not shown)
- BAt least one(11 more words not shown)
- CAt least some(15 more words not shown)
- DAt least one(16 more words not shown)
- EOther researchers had(21 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Recall what the researchers actually did. They grew a random assortment of a billion peptides, selected promising binders, and developed additional related peptides through a process resembling accelerated evolution. Later, they were designing new peptides for more specialized tasks.
What we’re looking for
For this inference question, use that account of developing candidates. Don't assume we know the prior history or behavior of every peptide just because the experiment tested so many.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The researchers aren't described as merely collecting existing natural substances. They develop related peptides from promising candidates and design new forms for particular functions. That supports the modest inference that at least some of the tested peptides had not previously existed in nature. We don't need to assume all billion were new or that the number alone proves novelty.
- B
The initial successful peptides bound exclusively to one of the tested crystals. Later work concerns peptides that bind to two different crystals. Neither finding establishes a peptide that binds to three different semiconductor compounds.
- C
The account lists silicon, gallium arsenide, and indium phosphide as the test materials. It doesn't identify a group tested on silicon but excluded from testing with gallium arsenide. We aren't given that split in the testing procedure.
- D
No earlier use in the computer-chip industry is described. Finding a peptide that might be useful now doesn't establish that industry was already using it before this research.
- E
We aren't told that other researchers previously tested these peptides for semiconductor reactions. A plausible research history still needs support; this account doesn't supply it.
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