#16 - Poppy petals function to attract pollinating insects

[srcline@noctrl.edu]

Hello,

So this is a MBT question b/c of the passive tense of most strongly support and the fact that this has no conclusion correct?
I probably answered my own question, but as I am going through my tests these questions are the ones that I miss most often, so I really want to make sure that I get strengthen and MBT down.

So there is conditional reasoning in this stimulus and I diagrammed this as follows:

flower not pollinated substance will not be released and petals will remain fresh as long as plant can nourish them.

(+) if sub is released petals or petals remain fresh flower pollinated

So I'm am probably negating this wrong, because answer choice B is not matching up with what I have. Not sure if I diagrammed the first half right either. The long sentences in the conditional in the stimulus is throwing me off.

Thankyou
Sarah

[David Boyle]

Hello,

So this is a MBT question b/c of the passive tense of most strongly support and the fact that this has no conclusion correct?
I probably answered my own question, but as I am going through my tests these questions are the ones that I miss most often, so I really want to make sure that I get strengthen and MBT down.

So there is conditional reasoning in this stimulus and I diagrammed this as follows:

flower not pollinated substance will not be released and petals will remain fresh as long as plant can nourish them.

(+) if sub is released petals or petals remain fresh flower pollinated

So I'm am probably negating this wrong, because answer choice B is not matching up with what I have. Not sure if I diagrammed the first half right either. The long sentences in the conditional in the stimulus is throwing me off.

Thankyou
Sarah

Hello,

There's not a passive tense, actually; "most strongly support" makes it an MBT regardless of tense. An MBT can sometimes have no conclusion, but some of them do have one.
A helpful diagram might be something like

pollination substance
substance CAUSES wilt

Your diagram, "(+) if sub is released petals or petals remain fresh flower pollinated", I wasn't sure what you were trying to say.

Answer B matches my diagram of the substance causing wilting.

David

[Sophia123]

Hello!

I get why answer choice b is correct, but I am a bit confused on why answer choice a isn't correct. I know we were not given any direct evidence in the stimulus that pollinating insects are only attracted non-wilted poppy flowers, but I thought this was basically implied considering that the stimulus says that pollination causes a substance to be released causing the petals to wilt. So if the petals are already wilted then pollination would cause them to wilt further, which doesn't seem to make sense to me. However, in hindsight I think I might have been assuming too much. Is there any other reason that I'm missing for why this is incorrect?

Thank you in advance!

-Sophia

[Adam Tyson]

You hit it on the head, Sophia - you are indeed assuming too much. In fact, on a Must Be True question, or its first cousin Most Strongly Supported, you should in fact assume nothing and base your answer solely on the information provided. For all we know, based on this stimulus, a pollinated flower is actually very attractive to other pollinating insects who all then rush to join in the pollination process! Sort of a "hey, that flower looks worldly and experienced - let's get in on that action!" situation. Could that be the case? Sure! What do we, the test takers, need to know about botany before we take this test? Not a darn thing, thank goodness.

For these "first family" question types (including MBT, Main Point, Flaw in the Reasoning, Parallel Reasoning, and a few others), base your prephrase, and your answer choice, solely on the information provided, and don't let any new information enter into the equation.

That's all there was to answer A, and once you know not to bring in that outside info it should be an easy one to throw in the trash so as not to confuse you further. Answer B is the only one that works based solely on the stimulus, and so you should be prepared to pick it and move on.

Keep up the good work!

[akanshalsat]

the stimulus says that cutting any UNPOLLINATED flower triggers the substance release hence wilting, I wanted to choose b but didnt solely on the fact that it didnt specify if the flower cut was polinated or not

[Charlie Melman]

Hi akanshalsat,

The key is that this is a "most strongly supported" question. The stimulus says that poppy petals wilt in two situations: pollination, or cutting of unpollinated petals. Answer choice (B) talks about "cut poppies," and it's reasonable to assume that the only thing there is to cut is the petals, since that's the only thing the stimulus talks about cutting. So if you cut the petals, the petals will wilt if pollinated (the wilting substance has already been released), or if unpollinated.

Now, could it be that a "cut poppy" could refer to a poppy with something besides its petals cut? Sure, but we have no evidence to support that thought, and this is a most strongly supported question -- so we don't have to be 100.0% sure that the answer is ironclad.

[Esquire123]

I’m confused with B. I get that the stimulus makes reference to what happens when a poppy flower is cut. However, the stimulus specifically talks about cutting an unpollinated poppy flower. Answer choice B just talks about cutting a poppy. It doesn’t speak specifically about cutting an unpollinated poppy, which is why i eliminated this answer choice. Any insight would be much appreciated

[Stephanie Oswalt]

I’m confused with B. I get that the stimulus makes reference to what happens when a poppy flower is cut. However, the stimulus specifically talks about cutting an unpollinated poppy flower. Answer choice B just talks about cutting a poppy. It doesn’t speak specifically about cutting an unpollinated poppy, which is why i eliminated this answer choice. Any insight would be much appreciated

Hi Esquire,

Thanks for the post! I moved your question to the thread discussing this topic. Please review the above discussion, and let us know if this helps. Thanks!