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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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If the whales originated in Asia 60 million years ago and they did not develop the ability to drink salt water until 50 million years ago, then they could not have crossed oceans which are salt water bodies, to go to distant continents. According to the passage, they needed to swim back to fresh waters to get a drink and this would not be possible if they were in the middle of an ocean.
Therefore, A seems logical.
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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KASSALMD wrote:
If the whales originated in Asia 60 million years ago and they did not develop the ability to drink salt water until 50 million years ago, then they could not have crossed oceans which are salt water bodies, to go to distant continents. According to the passage, they needed to swim back to fresh waters to get a drink and this would not be possible if they were in the middle of an ocean.
Therefore, A seems logical.


This is precisely the reason why A is right here. A is saying

Fossils of whale species dating from between sixty million and fifty million years ago will not be found on continents that were at the time separated from ancient Asia by wide expanses of ocean.

Look at the portions I have enlarged. One is from your post and one is the option A
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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I this choice A is more stronger. This choice prove that the whale cannot move to another continent before they develop kidney (absorb salt water)

In choice C, some of you may assume that each whale species will live in their own habitat, salt water or fresh water => prove that they develop super kidney, but it does not infer that whales swim ONLY in their own habitat. They can go around :D>
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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If ans is A i am confused.

scorpionz,

option A says these continents were separated by ocean sixty million years back.
and donsnot give any clue that there was ocen expense there that time. I dont agree on the conclusion that you have drawn from this option. you might be correct, can you explain in greater details.
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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A. Fossils of whale species dating from between sixty million and fifty million years ago will not be found on continents that were at the time separated from ancient Asia by wide expanses of ocean. OK - The conclusion must tie together two disparate claims: whales originated in Asia + species must have returned after swimming into salt water. This is the only conclusion that supports the authority of the claims. Take note of the "must"

B. Among whale fossils that date from later than about fifty million years ago, none are fossils of whale species that drank only fresh water. Reverse answer. This conclusion does not make sense after the premises given.

C. Fossils of whale species that drank fresh water will not be found in close proximity to fossils of whale species that drank salt water. Reverse answer. The fossils must be found in close proximity because "these species" must have had to return.

D. The earliest whales that drank salt water differed from fresh-water-drinking whales only in their possession of specialized kidneys. Could be true; shell game. It's tempting because indeed the kidneys must have been different. Even so, it need not be true. If it were true, it would need different support that what is provided.

E. Between sixty million and fifty million years ago, the freshwater lakes and rivers in which whales originated were gradually invaded by salt water. Could be true. If there freshwater lakes were not invaded by salt water, it is still possible that whale's kidney evolved because of a different cause.
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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I like this question. There aren't many people who have worked the problem yet, but it seems to be tricking most people.

Remember what you are trying to do on the problem. The correct answer will be one that should be true (or must be true) based on the facts presented in the argument. This problem really emphasizes the importance of eliminating your way to the right answer. Eliminate the ones that don't have to be true and you are left with the answer (and you will realize then, if you didn't before, that is probably does have to be true)...

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Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient Asia about sixty million years ago.
Not until about ten million years later did species of whales develop specialized kidneys enabling them to drink salt water.
Although fossil evidence shows that some early whale species that lacked such kidneys sometimes swam in the Earth’s saltwater oceans, these species must have had to return frequently to freshwater rivers to drink.

Which of the following is most strongly supported by the information given?

A) Fossils of whale species dating from between 60 million and 50 million years ago will not be found on continents that were at the time separated from ancient Asia by wide expanses of ocean.
B) Among whale fossils that date from later than about 50 million years ago, very few are fossils of whale species that drank only freshwater.
C) Before 50 million years ago, there were no mammalian species that were able to drink salt water.
D) The earliest whales that drank salt water differed from freshwater-drinking whales only in their possession of specialized kidneys.
E) Between 60 million and 50 million years ago, the freshwater lakes and rivers in which whales originated were gradually invaded by salt water.
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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vad3tha wrote:

I like the question too.
I have A and D left after eliminating B,C,E
The word "only" made D wrong

Answer is A


Eliminating down to two answers is super helpful on a question like this because in a quick read it would be easy to skip over the word "only" in choice D. With extra time to focus on two answer choices you give yourself a great chance to spot that error. If you were scrambling for time on this question you could easily miss that word and get this question wrong. Probably no accident that the word is found later in the sentence in a later answer choice.

Eliminate your way to the correct answer and be careful for little words like only, not, always, etc....

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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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I'm replying to a PM on this one. The question was how to eliminate answer choice C.

This question asks us to determine which choices is supported by the argument, or in other words we need to draw a conclusion. The correct answer, or conclusion, will be supported by the argument, which states: 1 - Whales started in fresh water (60 million yrs ago) 2 - they took 10 million years to get kidneys good for salt water 3 - some whales w/out these kidneys did go in salt water but they must have had to return to fresh water.

Choice C says there were no mammalian species able to drink salt water before 50 million years ago. The only information we have from the argument relates to whales. We are given no information about other mammals so this choice is not supported by the argument.

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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
IMO (A)
If the whales originated in ancient asia and between 60 & 50 million years ago didn't have specialized kidneys and had to return FREQUENTLY to fresh water rivers to drink then such whales would not have lived in continents that were separated from ancient asia by wide expanses of ocean.
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
A .
Passage states "Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient Asia about sixty million years ago. Not until about ten million years later did species of whales develop specialized kidneys enabling them to drink salt water"

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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
manishkhare wrote:
A .
Passage states "Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient Asia about sixty million years ago. Not until about ten million years later did species of whales develop specialized kidneys enabling them to drink salt water"

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Hi

How does option A supports the fact that the whales used to visit frequently to fresh water lake and swam in salt water. From option A, I inferred that the whales have no connection with the salt water.

It would be great if you could help me to understand this.
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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A...
Fossils of whale species dating from between sixty million and fifty million years ago will not be found on continents that were at the time separated from ancient Asia by wide expanses of ocean (saltwater). This implies these species must have had to return frequently to freshwater rivers to drink. So it strengthens the conclusion.

Yogita25 wrote:
manishkhare wrote:
A .
Passage states "Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient Asia about sixty million years ago. Not until about ten million years later did species of whales develop specialized kidneys enabling them to drink salt water"

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Manish Khare

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Hi

How does option A supports the fact that the whales used to visit frequently to fresh water lake and swam in salt water. From option A, I inferred that the whales have no connection with the salt water.

It would be great if you could help me to understand this.


In option A the word "ocean" is mentioned which implies the salt water.
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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A. Fossils of whale species dating from between sixty million and fifty million years ago will not be found on continents that were at the time separated from ancient Asia by wide expanses of ocean.
CORRECT

B. Among whale fossils that date from later than about fifty million years ago, none are fossils of whale species that drank only fresh water.
It is possible that atleast some did not venture into salt water, and stayed only in the fresh water lake.

C. Fossils of whale species that drank fresh water will not be found in close proximity to fossils of whale species that drank salt water.
It is possible that area where salt water and fresh water died is the same, like some end of river/ river basin.

D. The earliest whales that drank salt water differed from fresh-water-drinking whales only in their possession of specialized kidneys.
Just because we are not given any evidence that fresh water did not have 2 extra fins than salt water ones, does not mean they did not have.
Quite possible that had other differences too.

E. Between sixty million and fifty million years ago, the freshwater lakes and rivers in which whales originated were gradually invaded by salt water.
If the fresh water lakes were invaded by salt water, that would be all the more reason for the fresh water lakes to NOT return to that place again.
Please note that they got specialised kidneys from 50millions years ago onwards, so between 60-50million years ago, they had non-specialised kidney
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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Firstly, I would like to bring to notice here that this question is not a 'Strengthen' question but a 'Must be true/Inference' one. The tag to should be reconsidered if this makes sense.

I happened to see this question yesterday on my GMAT Prep Exam Pack-1; i am happy to have gotten this correct there. However, the one i saw on my test had a different choice at option D. Now, what made me think about this Strengthen/Inference difference in this question was that option. Here's the question:
Attachment:
Whales.png
Whales.png [ 35.93 KiB | Viewed 60589 times ]


Initially, i picked option D. I think that's an strengthener (though its no 100% consistent with one of the premises, it helps the conclusion). But soon realized that this question asks us to believe the argument ans asks us to validate the options (and not the opposite), and i chose A.

I have never seen (or at least noticed) any CR question with wrong answer that tests this.

I need expert's comments on this strengthener vs inference thing. Is my above reasoning correct?
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
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arhumsid wrote:
Firstly, I would like to bring to notice here that this question is not a 'Strengthen' question but a 'Must be true/Inference' one. The tag to should be reconsidered if this makes sense.

I happened to see this question yesterday on my GMAT Prep Exam Pack-1; i am happy to have gotten this correct there. However, the one i saw on my test had a different choice at option D. Now, what made me think about this Strengthen/Inference difference in this question was that option. Here's the question:
Attachment:
Whales.png


Initially, i picked option D. I think that's an strengthener (though its no 100% consistent with one of the premises, it helps the conclusion). But soon realized that this question asks us to believe the argument ans asks us to validate the options (and not the opposite), and i chose A.

I have never seen (or at least noticed) any CR question with wrong answer that tests this.

I need expert's comments on this strengthener vs inference thing. Is my above reasoning correct?


This is an inference question - Which of the following is supported by the information given?
So the argument supports one of the options. So the correct option provides the conclusion.
Option (A) provides the conclusion.

A strengthen question would be framed something like this: Which of the following best supports the argument/author's position etc?
So here you are looking for a strengthener.
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Re: Whales originated in the freshwater lakes and rivers of ancient - 2 [#permalink]
VeritasPrepKarishma wrote:
arhumsid wrote:
Firstly, I would like to bring to notice here that this question is not a 'Strengthen' question but a 'Must be true/Inference' one. The tag to should be reconsidered if this makes sense.

I happened to see this question yesterday on my GMAT Prep Exam Pack-1; i am happy to have gotten this correct there. However, the one i saw on my test had a different choice at option D. Now, what made me think about this Strengthen/Inference difference in this question was that option. Here's the question:
Attachment:
Whales.png


Initially, i picked option D. I think that's an strengthener (though its no 100% consistent with one of the premises, it helps the conclusion). But soon realized that this question asks us to believe the argument ans asks us to validate the options (and not the opposite), and i chose A.

I have never seen (or at least noticed) any CR question with wrong answer that tests this.

I need expert's comments on this strengthener vs inference thing. Is my above reasoning correct?


This is an inference question - Which of the following is supported by the information given?
So the argument supports one of the options. So the correct option provides the conclusion.
Option (A) provides the conclusion.

A strengthen question would be framed something like this: Which of the following best supports the argument/author's position etc?
So here you are looking for a strengthener.


Hey Thanks Karishma for the reply! Im sorry i did not convey my query properly.

So, this question we are discussing about is an Inference question.
Now, in the snapshot that i have pasted, if we change the question stem to- "Which of the following best supports the argument" (asking for a strengthener), would the correct answer be D?? (please refer to the attachment)

-Thanks
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