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555-605 Level|   Science|   Short Passage|                        
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Determining whether a given population of animals constitutes a 09 Aug 2019, 10:15
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GMATNinja
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Hi Experts,
In Q1. The passage is primarily concerned with

A. describing the development of the biological species concept
B. responding to a critique of reproductive compatibility as a criterion for defining a species
C. considering two different approaches to identifying biological species
D. pointing out the advantage of one method of distinguishing related species
E. identifying an obstacle to the classification of biological species

I am confused between B and C. While reading the passage,the focus was on drawbacks of biological species concept (based on reproductive compatibility) and towards the end an alternative was described.So I chose B.
Can anyone explain why this is incorrect ?
As for choice (B), the author does present several possible critiques of reproductive compatibility as a criterion for defining a species, but the passage is not concerned with responding to those possible critiques.

Rather, the author presents those drawbacks to illustrate situations in which the biological species concept is difficult to apply. The author then presents an alternative (phenotype) that can be used in such situations. The author does not say that the biological species concept should be abandoned in favor of phenotype. Instead, the author simply notes that some investigators use the latter when the biological species concept is difficult to apply.

The author considers both approaches but is not primarily concerned with defending or rejecting either. Thus, choice (C) is more appropriate.

I hope that helps!
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Hi GMATNinja The passage talks about two approaches to identify different species of animals: the biological species and the phenotype method. However, answer option C states that the passage is concerned with two distinct methods for identifying 'biological species' rather than say,'related species' or 'species of animals'. This confused me into selecting an incorrect answer option. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have overthought the use of the word biological but because we're in GMAT land, I assumed that this was a trap. Can you help me understand why answer option C is not incorrect for this reason?
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Determining whether a given population of animals constitutes a 13 Jul 2021, 05:39
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Hi,can anyone explain why ans choice E in primary purpose question is wrong?

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Determining whether a given population of animals constitutes a 07 Aug 2021, 08:51
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Question 1


Varunpal
Hi,can anyone explain why ans choice E in primary purpose question is wrong?

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The first question asks what the passage is primarily concerned with. Here’s (E):

Quote:
(E) identifying an obstacle to the classification of biological species
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The problem with (E) is that the passage is not primarily concerned with identifying AN obstacle to the classification of biological species. In fact, it identifies several obstacles: hybridization, groups that live in different places, etc.

Also, while the first sentence of the passage notes that an obstacle to classifying species is that no single accepted definition of a species exists, the entire passage is not dedicated to identifying this obstacle. After the obstacle has been identified in the first sentence, the duration of the passage proceeds to discuss two different approaches to classifying a species.

For those reasons, we can eliminate (E).

I hope that helps!
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Determining whether a given population of animals constitutes a 31 Aug 2021, 07:34
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GMATNinja
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Hi,
Thanks for your response and it helped me to understand why B) is incorrect.
I agree that the author does not respond to a critique.Just to confirm if it was a response to a critique ,the author would have stated his opinion regarding criticism of this theory,correct ?


Also,for understanding sake,can you confirm the following ?

You mentioned that
The author then presents an alternative (phenotype) that can be used in such situations. The author does not say that the biological species concept should be abandoned in favor of phenotype. Instead, the author simply notes that some investigators use the latter when the biological species concept is difficult to apply.

The author considers both approaches but is not primarily concerned with defending or rejecting either. Thus, choice (C) is more appropriate.


Below are my comments:

But doesn't the author's way of transitioning from the drawbacks of one theory (say theory 1) to a theory (say theory 2) which can resolve the issue in theory 1 without specifying any drawbacks of theory 2 suggest a preference for theory 2 ?

Also,the author's main aim is to Determinine whether a given population of animals
constitutes a distinct species .
At the end he says using theory 2 that
If the distribution of measurements from one group does not overlap with those of another, the two groups might reasonably be considered distinct species.

Doesn't this clearly show that theory 2 is the winner here ?

Thanks,
Saksham.
Even if the author had a preference for "theory 2", choice (B) would not be appropriate. The author PRESENTS criticisms of the biological species concept. RESPONDING to criticisms would involve citing criticisms (made by others) and DEFENDING the biological species concept against those criticisms. For example:

    Responding to criticisms that she was weak on crime, the mayor pointed out that crime rates have decreased by 5% every year since she took office.

Furthermore, the author only suggests that theory 2 is "the winner" in certain situations. This does not necessarily imply that the author favors one over the other. For example, Medicine X might be great for lowering cholesterol MOST of the time. However, under certain circumstances, it might be better to prescribe Medicine Y. That doesn't make Y better than X, it just means that Y is better in SOME cases.

Similarly, the author states that theory 2 can be used "when the biological species concept is difficult to apply." This does not suggest that theory 2 is better. It simply suggests that there is an alternative that can be used in situations when the biological species concept is not appropriate (i.e. when the drawbacks described would make it inaccurate).

Regardless, the author is not "responding to a critique" of the biological species concept, so choice (B) should be eliminated.
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Hi GMATNinja,

Just a quick clarification here. The author in the 2nd para just states that when something is difficult, investigators do X. We have not idea if the author agrees with it or disagrees with it. He is just presenting general accepted information which might not necessarily be the authors accepted view.

I am having a tough time understanding how can i infer that the author agrees with this generally accepted view? Would really appreciate how to comprehend such languages in GMAT RC passages because we see this often. Thanks a lot.

Query pertains to this question - " With which of the following statements regarding the classification of individual species would the author most likely agree?"
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Determining whether a given population of animals constitutes a 12 Sep 2021, 09:16
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Question 3


rinkuda


Hi GMATNinja,

Just a quick clarification here. The author in the 2nd para just states that when something is difficult, investigators do X. We have not idea if the author agrees with it or disagrees with it. He is just presenting general accepted information which might not necessarily be the authors accepted view.

I am having a tough time understanding how can i infer that the author agrees with this generally accepted view? Would really appreciate how to comprehend such languages in GMAT RC passages because we see this often. Thanks a lot.

Query pertains to this question - " With which of the following statements regarding the classification of individual species would the author most likely agree?"
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Question 3 asks us which answer choice the author would "most likely" agree with. So, we don't need something that the author EXPLICITLY agrees with in the passage. Instead, we can look for hints that suggest the author would agree with one of the answer choices.

In the first paragraph, the author lists problems with the biological species concept. In the second paragraph, the author tells us how "some investigators" overcome these problems using the phenotype instead.

When explaining how the phenotype concept fixes the issues with the biological species concept, the author says that "two groups that have evolved separately are likely to display measurable differences," and that "if the distribution of measurements from one group does not overlap with those of another, the two groups might reasonably be considered distinct species."

By using the words "likely" and "reasonably" in describing the phenotype method, the author seems to think that it DOES, in fact, address some of the issues with the other definition. So, we can say that the author would likely agree that "phenotype comparison may help to classify species when application of the biological species concept proves inconclusive."

(A) is the correct answer to question 3.

I hope that helps!
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Determining whether a given population of animals constitutes a 22 Feb 2022, 01:59
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GMATNinja
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Why Q2, D is incorrect?
The author of the passage mentions “groups that live in different places” (in line 21) most probably in order to -

(D) note an instance in which phenotype classification is customarily used
Acc. to passage, phenotype can be used when biological concept is difficult to apply. So if we consider this line "Two groups that have evolved separately are likely to display measurable differences in many of their traits" - we can say that when groups live in diff places, we can use phenotype for classification.
The author has mentioned a condition to apply phenotype in line 21.

Thanks!
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Determining whether a given population of animals constitutes a 22 Feb 2022, 19:55
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Sneha2021
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KarishmaB
Why Q2, D is incorrect?
The author of the passage mentions “groups that live in different places” (in line 21) most probably in order to -

(D) note an instance in which phenotype classification is customarily used
Acc. to passage, phenotype can be used when biological concept is difficult to apply. So if we consider this line "Two groups that have evolved separately are likely to display measurable differences in many of their traits" - we can say that when groups live in diff places, we can use phenotype for classification.
The author has mentioned a condition to apply phenotype in line 21.

Thanks!
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2. The author of the passage mentions “groups that live in different places” (in line 21) most probably in order to
(A) point out a theoretical inconsistency in the biological species concept
(B) offer evidence in support of the biological species concept
(C) identify an obstacle to the application of the biological species concept
(D) note an instance in which phenotype classification is customarily used
(E) describe an alternative to the biological species concept


The question is why does the author mention “groups that live in different places”. When he says this, what is HE trying to convey? What point did HE want to make by mentioning it?

A third problem with the biological species concept is that investigators cannot always determine whether two groups that live in different places are capable of interbreeding.


Here he talks about another problem with the biological species concept. Investigators cannot find whether two groups living in different places are capable of interbreeding. Since they are living in different places, they would not have met and hence investigators would not be able to see whether they can interbreed. This "living in diff places" in an obstacle to applying the concept.

As for (D), phenotype is not even mentioned till now. The author does not mention "groups that live in different places” to note an instance in which it is used.

Answer (C)
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KarishmaB

(A) Phenotype comparison may help to classify species when application of the biological species concept proves inconclusive.
I read the explanation but still not convinced how "inconclusive" is correct.
In 2nd para, it is clearly mentioned that when 1st approach is difficult to apply, we can used Phenotype. So how can we consider "difficult to apply" same as "inconclusive"
If we are not able to apply any concept, how can we comment on the result of the application

It would be really helpful if you can help to understand the reasoning behind A.
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Sneha2021
KarishmaB

(A) Phenotype comparison may help to classify species when application of the biological species concept proves inconclusive.
I read the explanation but still not convinced how "inconclusive" is correct.
In 2nd para, it is clearly mentioned that when 1st approach is difficult to apply, we can used Phenotype. So how can we consider "difficult to apply" same as "inconclusive"
If we are not able to apply any concept, how can we comment on the result of the application

It would be really helpful if you can help to understand the reasoning behind A.
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The passage tells us:
When the biological species concept is difficult to apply, some investigators use phenotype, an organism’s observable characteristics, instead.

What does it mean by 'when the biological species concept is difficult to apply'? It means that when we apply the biological species concept on two groups but are unable to find whether they belong to the same species or not i.e. the concept doesn't apply properly and hence doesn't give us a valid clear answer. Perhaps the definition is not applicable under the circumstances or not verifiable or any other reason why it may be difficult to apply in that case. The point is that if the concept is not successful in giving an answer, then phenotype can be used.
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Determining whether a given population of animals constitutes a 18 Sep 2023, 23:24
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vedha0
QUESTION 4

as per the question in VR book, lines 10-13 are

group. Yet this idea can be too restrictive. First,
mating between groups labeled as different species
(hybridization), as often occurs in the canine family,
is quite common in nature. Second, sometimes

Leaving out the end of ongoing sentence (" ...group) and the start of the new sentence in line 13.. the lines in focus are "Yet...common in nature" right?

i approached considering from YET to NATURE and following the process of elimination, i found the answer to be E. B was my runner up choice but previous sentence wrt to my interpretation was actually the definition of the biological species concept.

How do we deal with such minute discrepancies on gmat questions when they mention line numbers? pls help with this confusion.

AbdurRakib GMATNinja KarishmaB
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The author says that the idea is restrictive, not invalid. Invalid is too strong a word for his stand and until and unless he says "this concept is baseless/bogus/untrue/false/not valid," I wouldn't accept 'invalid.'
Though yes, I do hope that they clarify it a bit better in the actual test (the book has no highlighted text etc).
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GMATNinja

As you said, nothing in the passage suggests that "biological species" and "different species" aren't the same but the passage also doesn't specify that they are.

C is my opinion is a narrow answer choice as it only talks about biological species and not phenotype. The passage clears biological species as a concept on its own so that does not allow us to take its definition as distinct species.

KarishmaB
GMATNinja

I agree that the wording of (C) is a bit confusing! Here's why the word "biological" isn't a great reason to eliminate (C):

The passage explores two methods to determine "whether a given population of animals constitutes a distinct species." These methods are:
  • "the biological species concept" and
  • "phenotype."

So, we know that the two approaches can be used to determine whether a given population constitutes a "distinct species", but aren't told whether that's the same thing as a "biological species," as specified in answer choice (C). Can we infer that these two terms mean the same thing?

If we want to eliminate (C), we have to assume that "distinct species" and "biological species" refer to two different things. Nothing in the passage suggests that these two things are different... sure, one method has "biological" in the name, but we know that both methods are used to determine the same thing. To illustrate that idea, consider the following:

  • In order to track revenue, a company can utilize either cash-basis accounting or accrual accounting.
  • Even though only one of the two methods has the word "accrual" in it, we could still say that both methods can be used to track how much revenue a company accrues each year.
  • Similarly, even though only one of the methods described in the passage has the word "biological" in the name, doesn't mean that the other can't also be used to identify biological species.

So even though the word "biological" in choice (C) is very confusing, it's not a good enough reason to eliminate (C). In fact, saying, "... two different approaches to identifying biological species" is no different than saying, "... two different approaches to identifying species of living organisms" ("biological" simply means "related to living organisms").

Choice (C) might not look good, but, using POE, it is the best answer.

I hope that helps!
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