- Thu May 24, 2018 4:45 pm
#45898
Hi coolbeans,
This is a Weaken question asking us to attack a specific argument made in the third paragraph, that canary brains regenerate cells because their brains would be too large and heavy to fly if their brains had enough cells for a lifetime of memories and experiences. It's a causal argument: the cause is the necessities of canary aerodynamics, and the effect is a smaller brain that regenerates cells. So what we're looking for is an answer choice that attacks the presumed causal relationship, maybe an alternate cause, or a cause without the effect, or an effect without the cause.
Answer choice (C) gives us a very similar cause, bird aerodyamics similar to canaries, without the effect (smaller, lighter brains), a classic weakening answer for causal reasoning, and our correct answer choice.
Answer choice (D) is composed of two elements (repertoire of song and muscles for flying) that are irrelevant to the argument being made in the third paragraph.
Hope this clears thing up!