PrepTest 156, Section 1, Question 22
Discovered in 1993, the site known as Ukhaa(459 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- ASome scientists have(25 more words not shown)
- BThough the causes(25 more words not shown)
- CInvestigations of geological(22 more words not shown)
- DGeological evidence suggests(20 more words not shown)
- EThe search for(26 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We already predicted the main point: the fossils were probably preserved by rain-induced sandslides rather than sandstorms. The three kinds of sandstone help establish that explanation. The final observation about plants and rain tells us something further about the ancient environment.
What we’re looking for
We want the answer that captures the change in explanation, not one that makes either a supporting observation or a later implication the whole point.
Working the answers
- A
This makes abundant ancient rainfall the central theory being tested. Rain is part of the proposed sandslide explanation, but the main investigation concerns what buried the animals and preserved their skeletons.
- B
The question being answered is primarily how the animals were buried, not why sandslides occur. And the author explicitly says the cause of those slides “is not well understood,” rather than presenting a fully settled mechanism.
- C
The stable, vegetated dune field is a conclusion drawn from the sandslide hypothesis. It doesn't capture the central contrast between two explanations for the fossils. We can recognize the importance of that environmental inference without making it the main point.
- DCorrect
This identifies the evidence, the animals we are trying to explain, and the competing causes. The wind-created sandstone lacks the skeletal fossils; the fossils occur in a different deposit whose structure resembles the product of a rain-induced slide. That is why the new evidence favors slides over storms.
- E
The sandstone formations are evidence used to explain the fossils. This reverses that emphasis, making new knowledge about sandstone formation the main result of a fossil search.
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