Question 6
Arthurito
6. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the hypothesis mentioned in lines 17-19 [Such evidence is consistent with researchers’ hypothesis that anteaters use electroreceptors to detect electrical signals given off by prey]?
(A) Researchers are able to train anteaters to break into an underground chamber that is emitting a strong electrical signal.
(B)
Researchers are able to detect a weak electrical signal emanating from the nesting chamber of an ant colony.
(C) Anteaters are observed taking increasingly longer amounts of time to locate the nesting chambers of ants.
(D) Anteaters are observed using various angles to break into nests of ants.
(E) Anteaters are observed using the same angle used with nests of ants to break into the nests of other types of prey
isnt it anteaters instead ? I got confused for this one, because it's an easy B, and I chose A because I thought this make no sense that the researchers are able to detect weak signal ?
Think of the situation from the researchers' perspective: they hypothesize that anteaters use their electroreceptors to locate prey. After all, anteaters quickly locate nesting chambers of ants that can't be seen!
Unfortunately, researchers haven't yet detected an electrical signal emanating from the ants' nesting chambers. So, while we know that anteaters can't see the chambers, we have no evidence that they are using electrical signals to locate those chambers.
If researchers did some more testing and found out that there are, indeed, weak electrical signals emanating from the nesting chamber of an ant colony, then that would certainly support their hypothesis about electroreceptors.
(B) would support the researchers' hypothesis, so (B) is the correct answer to question 6.
Here's (A):
Quote:
(A) Researchers are able to train anteaters to break into an underground chamber that is emitting a strong electrical signal.
From the passage, we know that
two kinds of receptors respond to
strong electrical signals: electroreceptors and tactile receptors.
On the other hand,
only electroreceptors respond to
weak electrical signals.
We're trying to support the hypothesis that the anteaters are using electroreceptors to find prey. Even if researchers can train anteaters to respond to strong electrical signals, as stated in (A), that doesn't really help this hypothesis -- we wouldn't be able to tell whether the anteaters were relying on their tactile receptors or their electroreceptors to find the chambers.
Because (A) wouldn't provide evidence to support the hypothesis for electroreceptors in particular, we can eliminate (A).
I hope that helps!