jabhatta2
Hi
AndrewN avigutman - i thought (A) was wrong because of the following reason
Quote:
(A) The eggs are at risk of being disturbed only during the brief egg-laying season when many lizards are digging in a relatively small area.
Lets say :
- the egg-laying season is the month of March for all lizards. Some lizzards lay in week 1 | some lay in week 2 | some lay in week 3 | some lay in week 4.
- Incubation period after laying eggs - 8 weeks.
With that thinking, I looked at the red specifically and marked (A) wrong. Reason -
To me, the words in the red --- reinforced the thinking that mother lizards SHOULD be around their tunnel
for the entire month of March when lizzards come to lay their eggsWhy ? Beacuse every lizard is
digging in a relatively small area. in order to lay their eggs.
So , if i am the mother lizard, I need to be around my tunnel
for the entire month of MarchWhy ? To ensure, no other female lizard burrows and digs close enough to my tunnel that causes disturbance to my eggs (As my eggs are incubating)
Hello,
jabhatta2. You are getting into trouble right from the start here, with
let's say. You cannot
assume any particular duration for
the brief egg-laying season. The term could apply to a few days only, perhaps even a span of hours within a single day. (The word
season has broad applicability within such a context.) Rather, you have to consult the passage. There, the references to time pertain to the
incubation period for the eggs and the
few days the adults hang around to guard those eggs. In other words, there is no information to guide us into an interpretation of just how long
the brief egg-laying season may entail, so we cannot speculate.
In paradox questions, there is some unseen factor or set of circumstances at work that can create a more cohesive picture between the disparate elements. What needs to be resolved is that these eggs seem so fragile, yet the parents abandon guarding them after a few days. Here is my take on each answer choice, in brief:
Quote:
(A) The eggs are at risk of being disturbed only during the brief egg-laying season when many lizards are digging in a relatively small area.
Analysis: Perhaps the presence of
many [adult] lizards... in a relatively small area affords the eggs some mutual protection, and if the
risk of disturbance is confined to a
brief period only, the adults might be able, logically, to leave after a somewhat brief guard duty, and the paradox would be resolved.
Quote:
(B) The length of the incubation period varies somewhat from one tunnel to another.
Analysis: This variation of
some provides no insight into why there would be an exodus of parent lizards. You cannot even conjure up a connection without creating one or two steps to make the information fit, and that is not what a correct answer choice will do in CR.
Quote:
(C) Each female lizard lays from 15 to 20 eggs, only about 10 of which hatch even if the eggs are not disturbed at any time during the incubation period.
Analysis: The type of association that might lead someone into choosing this trap is that the parents could figure that at best, half the eggs will hatch, so why bother sticking around to guard them? The passage tells us, however, that
these lizards guard their tunnels for... a few days, so the question would remain: why do they stop standing guard after those few days (i.e. why guard the eggs at all)?
Quote:
(D) The temperature and humidity within the tunnels will not be suitable for the incubating eggs unless the tunnels are plugged with sand immediately after the eggs are laid.
Analysis: This is a condition for successful incubation, but the lizards would plug the tunnels with sand regardless, and this one behavior does not explain another—abandoning the
incubating eggs. For this answer choice to be more reasonable, you would expect to encounter information on just how long it might take to plug the tunnels. (Perhaps if the parents took
a few days to plug all the holes, they would no longer have anything to do but wait for the eggs to hatch, and they would be free to scurry off.)
Quote:
(E) The only way to disturb the eggs of this lizard species is by opening up one of the tunnels in which they are laid.
Analysis: Again, this fact provides information on the overall process of incubation, but it does not allow you to explain the behavior of the parent lizards any better than if it said that the lizards ate flies or some such.
If you think some other answer choice can be defended,
jabhatta2, I would welcome the accompanying analysis. Just watch out for one- or two-step-removed logic that draws from an unfounded assumption.
- Andrew
15%
(low)
21%
(01:58)
wrong 
05 Jun 2018, 12:05
