#3 - The current sharp decline in commercial honeybee

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Assumption. The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

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

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

[amacmill]

Could someone explain number 3 to me?

[Dave Killoran]

Hi A,

If you don't mind, could you tell us a bit about where you ran into problems with this one? Was it understanding the stimulus, or the answer choices, etc? That would really help us provide an answer that best answers your question.

Thanks!

[amacmill]

I'm just not understanding why E is the correct answer. It's the answer I came up with because I eliminated all of the others, but I can't come up with an explanation for why the argument relies on this assumption, and the negation of E doesn't ruin the argument for me.

[Francis O'Rourke]

The speaker concludes that inbreeding is an underlying cause of the decline in honeybee populations. The only evidence given for this claim is that breeding practices have limited the genetic diversity of honeybees, and that there are several proposed immediate causes.

Although this may make sense to you on a quick, casual read of the argument, we need to be very critical of the speaker. Does limited genetic diversity necessarily weaken honeybees? We are not expected to know insect epidemiology for this exam, so we cannot make this assumption.

The author is leaving a gap in the argument. We are told that honeybees have limited genetic diversity, but we cannot necessarily link that to population declines. Whenever you see such a gap in a Necessary Assumption question, you should be on the look out for Supporter answer choices. We can tell exactly what the author thinks is trying to do with the information, but the elements are not linked together as well as they should be.

Answer Choice (E) links these together and tells us that limited genetic diversity can cause honeybees to be weakened int he face of conditions such as pesticides, bacteria, mites, etc...

If you are still not sure, apply the Assumption Negation Technique. First logically negate the answer choice at hand:

Lack of genetic diversity cannot make honeybees more vulnerable to adverse conditions.

If we were to learn that information, we could not accept the speaker's conclusion that breeding has done anything to cause populations to decline. For that reason, the speaker must assume that answer choice (E) is true.

[amacmill]

I think the problem I'v having with this question is that I'm reading the two issues separately, so there's the surface issue and then an underlying issue (lack of genetic diversity. However, I don't see what it is exactly in the speaker's argument that is saying lack of genetic diversity makes bees more susceptible to the surface conditions. In other words, my prephrase was something along the lines of "lack of genetic diversity leads is likely to lead to the surface consequences listed." I didn't think that was the same as lack of genetic diversity causes bees to be more susceptible to those issues than they might be otherwise.

[James Finch]

Hi A,

The issue in this question is that the stimulus author is claiming that honeybee populations are more vulnerable now to "the same viral and bacterial infections, pesticide poisonings, and mite infestations that devastated bees in the past" because of decades of inbreeding. However, there is no link explicitly made by the author to show that inbreeding has any effect on bees' ability to survive the aforementioned "adverse conditions," so we're missing the link between the existence of inbreeding and the current greater susceptibility of bees to the same "adverse conditions" that existed in the past. Answer choice (E) provides that link, allowing that "lack of genetic diversity can make honeybees more vulnerable to adverse conditions."

Hope this helps!

[lsatprobs]

This was my only question wrong on the section!

Ok, so when I re-read the question this is what I took away:

The bees are declining because of the adverse conditions (bacteria, pesticides, etc) BUT the author says, hey, there is also another things happening here: genetic diversity! This happened because of interbreeding.

But...how is that proven to be an underlying problem? How do we know genetic diversity contributed to this at all? Answer: we do not.

Ok, so let's see:

a) commercial honeybees are more vulnerable to problems with inbreeding than wild honeybees - wait who the heck mentioned wild honeybees - eliminated.
b) the results of decades of breeding practices cannot be quickly undone. Ok, let's reverse this: they can be undone. Ok, then who cares, they still could have hurt the honeybees right now! Live in the present people!
c)The genetic diversity of the honeybee population continues to decline - ok so inversed, the honeybee genetic diversity does not continue to decline - ok, but...again, what if it stays the same, or even if it decreases, we have no connection here. There is no connection between my adverse conditions and the genetic diversity. Out.
d) in the past, viral infections and mites have devastated genetically diverse honeybee populations. -negated - in the past viral infections and mites have not devastated diverse honeybee populations - so, ok we are talking about LESS diversity - so um, gone.
e) lack of genetic diversity can make honeybees more vulnerable to adverse conditions
Negated:
lack of diversity cannot make honeybees more vulnerable to adverse conditions
this weakens the argument because if lack of diversity has no effect on the conditions that are causing a sharp decline, then the argument is ruined.


Let me know if my thought process is right here!

[nicholaspavic]

Hi lsatprobes,

Good job on your excellent performance and I think your thought process is right on! Well done.

Keep up the good work!

[ja123]

Hello,

I don't fully understand why E is required by the argument. Isn't it possible that a lack of genetic diversity, by itself, negatively affects the bee population? If this were the case, negating E would have no effect on the argument.

Thank you