Q14

[hyewonkim89]

I was down to (B) and (E) and ended up choosing (E).

What makes (B) better than (E)?

[hana.kid]

I think (E) is wrong because it's too strong. There's nothing about a scientific consensus, though Passage B tries to trick us by first stating that many scientists distinguish animal communication systems from human language in the same way.

I think (B) is correct because there's a lot of support for it.

Passage A:
Lines 8-9 "Such communication is inadvertent."
Lines 13-17 "There is no evidence that he does so because he attributes knowledge or desire to other frogs, or because he knows his calls will affect their knowledge..."

Passage B
Lines 50-52 "Animals may use communicative signs, but lack conscious intention..."
Lines 59-65 "Recent research calls into question... the assumption that animals respond mechanically to stimuli, whereas humans speak with conscious understanding and intent."

[ohthatpatrick]

Great response.

(E) makes the focus of the two passages the burning question of: is there or isn't there a scientific consensus?

If you're writing to address that question, you would mainly present evidence to show that scientists agree or that they disagree. You wouldn't even need to talk about WHAT the differences between animal and human language are; your concern would be merely whether current research show broad agreement or significant disagreement.

This answer is tempting because, taken together, our experience of reading the two passages suggests that there is NOT a scientific consensus about the supposed difference between animal and human communication.

But the passages themselves weren't about whether or not there was a consensus.

They were about whether or not animal communication has conscious intention. Psg A is arguing that it doesn't, while Psg B is more open minded to the possibility that it does (or that human communication DOESN'T as well).

== other answers ==

(A) Psg A wasn't about the capacity to lie.

(C) There is some mention of stimuli in both passages, but psg B is clearly focused on attacking the assumption that non-human animals necessarily lack conscious intention. Lines 53-56 really crystallize the purpose of psg B, and this answer doesn't relate to that at all.

(D) This describes a discussion of nonhuman primates vs. other animals. But in reality both passages are more about humans vs. other animals.