#17 - Specific Reference, Weaken

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[chiickenx]

Hi, for this one, during my BR I just had a hard time explaining why its wrong. (B) just does such a much better job that its easy to see why its right and that was technically my reason for eliminating everything. But (C) is just kind of weird. I feel like it doesn't do anything, but at the same time i feel like its implying that the study itself is not representative of the great titmouse. In that sense, isn't the study hurt since it leaves open the question of whether some juveniles have a higher status than adults?

[Adam Tyson]

An interesting question, chiickenx! Does the lack of live juveniles in the study group do much to undermine the validity of the experiment? Perhaps - maybe juveniles would have reacted differently than the adults did. Or, perhaps they would have reacted in the same way to the dummies.

But still, the study did reveal different behaviors from the live birds correlated with narrow vs. wide breast stripes. Those results are still useful and interesting, even if the study may have been incomplete. So saying "hey, you could have also looked at juveniles" doesn't do much to undermine the overall value of the experiment.

Most important, though, is what you already determined - answer B is just WAY better! We are supposed to select that answer that "most seriously undermines(s)" the results, not just one that might do some damage. Answer C might be okay if there was nothing better offered, but we don't have to worry about that analysis if we stick to those clear instructions in the stem and we recognize how great the correct answer is.

[miriamson07]

Hi Powerscore. I have a question about answer choice A.

The passage states: “many birds that form flocks compete through aggressive interaction for priority of access to resources such as food and shelter. The result of repeated interactions between flock members is that each bird gains a particular social status related to its fighting ability...”

When reading these words, it seems to me that the phenomenon is focused on birds within the same flock. That is why, when answer choice A mentions birds from different flocks, I wonder whether this could skew the results we are looking for.

I look forward to your response. Thank you

[Amber Thomas]

Hi Miriamson!

I understand your reasoning here, however, I think that the phrase "many birds that form flocks" just serves to set the context that we are referring to bird species that interact socially with one another and form groups, as opposed to more solitary birds. Therefore, the social status interactions are not necessarily contained to one flock or another.

I hope this helps!