PrepTest 157, Section 4, Question 15
Political arguments about biodiversity and the preservation of(443 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AClassifying biological populations(30 more words not shown)
- BAlthough scientists often(19 more words not shown)
- CHow biological populations(20 more words not shown)
- DTraditional methods of(25 more words not shown)
- ECharles G. Sibley(17 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We've already predicted the main point: species classification remains disputed, and how we draw those boundaries has practical consequences for protection. Sibley's work gives us a case through which to see that problem. The answer should capture the larger controversy, not make him its undisputed solution.
Working the answers
- A
Sibley's work has not been widely accepted, and the discussion leaves the classification problem unresolved. It doesn't establish that his work has brought these problems closer to resolution. New evidence and an end to the underlying disagreement are different things.
- B
One critic calls interpretation arbitrary, and Sibley partly acknowledges the difficulty of naming categories. That doesn't establish what most scientists agree about every classification system. It also shifts the main emphasis from the controversy and its stakes to a purported consensus.
- CCorrect
This combines the unsettled scientific issue with its practical importance. The opening connects species to preservation, the middle explains competing classifications and Sibley's disputed work, and the ending returns to the consequences of recognizing more species.
- D
Sibley does challenge earlier classifications, so this contains a real part of the account. But it reduces the discussion to traditional methods versus his challenge and leaves out the broader problem of defining species and its protection implications.
- E
We are told that Sibley used DNA-DNA hybridization, not that he developed it. More broadly, a report about his methods and their reception would be narrower than the discussion of the species question as a whole.
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