Q20

[0mingzhuli]

Can someone explain to me why E is a better choice than B? The absence of carnivores in the pronghorn's present-day environment is mentioned in line 34-36. This is used as evidence that pronghorns are exhibiting relict behavior, since they do not need to roam in herds anymore.

[ohthatpatrick]

Yeah, I see why (B) is tempting, because the absence of carnivores makes it unusual that the pronghorn would HERD. This can lead us to consider that the pronghorn may have had some environmental benefit to herding in the past.

It doesn't, however, really relate to speed, and it's less direct of an explanation than any of the alternatives.

Why should I believe that the pronghorn's speed is due to relict behavior?
(A) Because, there are fossils of extinct animals who were fast enough to run down a pronghorn and lived side-by-side with pronghorns many ages ago.

Why should I believe that the pronghorn's speed is due to relict behavior?
(C) Because, female pronghorns prefer athletic mates, which suggests that speed has been evolutionarily selected for.

Why should I believe that the pronghorn's speed is due to relict behavior?
(D) Because, we ALSO need to explain why pronghorns herd, so it seems likely that the pronghorn's current behavior is confusing because important environmental forces that shaped it no longer exist.

Why should I believe that the pronghorn's speed is due to relict behavior?
(E) Because, other species are known/thought to display behavior that is caused by now-obsolete environmental factors.

Compare these answers to ...
Why should I believe that the pronghorn's speed is due to relict behavior?
(B) Because, there are no carnivores in the pronghorn's present-day environment.

Hmmm. How is that an explanation? We can ultimately stretch (B) into suggesting what (D) says, but (B) on its own has nothing to do with the pronghorn's speed.

Another thing to keep in mind is the language attached to some of these other answers.

(A) 'pronghorns run as fast as they do because of adaptation to ... '

(C) 'if speed and endurance were once essential to survival, ... choose mates based on athletic abilities'

(D) 'their herding appears to be another adaptation ...'

(E) 'relict behaviors appear to occur in other animals, increasing the general plausibility of such a behavior'

Hope this helps.

[mbelenky71]

I think another KEY reason to dismiss answer choice B as being supported in the passage (and select it as the right answer) is the passage says (lines 34-36): "But, since pronghorns have nothing to fear from present-day carnivores and thus have..."

So the passage is NOT saying that there are no carnivores (absence) in the pronghorn's environment, it's saying the pronghorn's have nothing to fear from them. This implies that carnivores still may exist in their environment, they're just not as aggressive as they used to be, for example.
"Absence" (as the answer choice notes) and "nothing to fear" (as the passage notes) are 2 different things. Hence why B is the right answer.

[uhdang]

Huh?
Do I have a wrong PT for this? The answer for this is, according to my answer key, B. Nobody seemed to point out this after over 500 views, so do I have the wrong answer key?

[tommywallach]

Hey Uhdang,

You've mistaken the question. It's asking what IS NOT in the passage (EXCEPT). All the discussion folks so far have said (B) is correct. You're just misreading "irrelevant" as "incorrect."

-t

[uhdang]

Wow, MAJOR Blunder from my part!
My apology

Omingzuli's comment on "Can someone explain to me why E is a better choice than B?" REALLY shook me hard and started me off on a COMPLETELY wrong direction. And then Patrick said "B is tempting", so it confused me even more.. Once I was looking at this from the wrong direction, everything just went all conflicting. Same thing happens sometimes when I go through LR questions, and it feels like my brain is completely stuck and unable to get out of certain course of reasoning.
Thanks for pointing out for me.

[tommywallach]

No problem, uhdang! Thanks for being so active and brilliant on our forum!

-t