#16 - Must Be True, Author’s Perspective

[Sdaoud17]

would you agree that even passage b Disagree with A about the approach that A made but at the same time b agree with A when he said that om line 54 to 56 about the absence of evidence therefore he called the question in line 63 about animals respond mechanically to stimuli. like Passage A said in Paragraph 2

[Steve Stein]

Hi Sdaoud17,

In that one, Author A asserts that many animal noises that appear to have conscious intent are actually just based on instinct--concluding that such noises "are not as purposeful as they first appear."

Author B takes issue with this assertion. In lines 54-56, the author disagrees, saying that the conditioned reflex argument is circular: Intent is ruled out from the outset, and then that assumption is used as evidence of the difference between animal and human communication.

Author B believes that instead, recent research (that is, empirical evidence) should be considered instead--calling into question author A's idea that animal and human communication is so very different.

I hope that's helpful, but please let me know whether that answers your question--thanks!

~Steve

[Sdaoud17]

can you explain how D is the Answer?

[Steve Stein]

Thanks for your response. Again, author B believes the empirical evidence should be considered, instead of just assuming from the outset that there is no conscious intent in animal communication, and then concluding that animal communication is inherently different.

Correct answer choice D describes Author B's criticism perfectly, saying that those who agree with Author A "make assumptions about matters that should be determined empirically."

I hope that's helpful--this is not an easy passage! Let me know whether that clears this one up.

~Steve

[wrjackson1]

I'm having trouble with D because Passage A explicitly cites research results in lines 24-25

[Alex Bodaken]

wrjackson1,

Thanks for the question! I think there's an important distinction here: one can be citing research, as you correctly note the author of Passage A does in lines 24-25, and still be making assumptions (as answer choice (D) indicates). In this case, the assumption being made is that if animal calling is not adjusted based on the relative ignorance of those around them, then animals are not using calling to respond to another's need for information; the author of passage B would argue that this assumption is not proven out and is simply taken as fact from the outset. This matches our answer choice (D) pretty well, which is why it is the credited answer.

Hope that helps!
Alex