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505-555 Level|   Long Passage|   Science|                        
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waytowharton
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Homeostasis, an animal’s maintenance of certain internal variables wit 19 Apr 2022, 23:25
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It took me 9minutes 30 seconds to solve this. Although the questions were easy, I spent a lot of time reading the 4 paragraphs in passage. Timing statistics for the questions are just half the time i took. Any suggestions on how to overcome speed issue.

KarishmaB AjiteshArun ExpertsGlobal5
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Homeostasis, an animal’s maintenance of certain internal variables wit 13 May 2022, 19:47
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It took 5 min 37 sec to solve the passage. Got all 3 correct
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Homeostasis, an animal’s maintenance of certain internal variables wit 15 May 2022, 07:21
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Homeostasis, an animal’s maintenance of certain internal variables within an acceptable range, particularly in extreme physical environments, has long interested biologists. The desert rat and the camel in the most water-deprived environments, and marine vertebrates in an all-water environment, encounter the same regulatory problem: maintaining adequate internal fluid balance.

For desert rats and camels, the problem is conservation of water in an environment where standing water is nonexistent, temperature is high, and humidity is low. Despite these handicaps, desert rats are able to maintain the osmotic pressure of their blood, as well as their total body water content, at approximately the same levels as other rats. One countermeasure is behavioral: these rats stay in burrows during the hot part of the day,thus avoiding loss of fluid through panting or sweating, which are regulatory mechanisms for maintaining internal body temperature by evaporative cooling. Also, desert rats’ kidneys can excrete a urine having twice as high a salt content as seawater.

Camels, on the other hand, rely more on simple endurance. They cannot store water, and their reliance on an entirely unexceptional kidney results in a rate of water loss through renal function significantly higher than that of desert rats. As a result, camels must tolerate losses in body water of up to 30 percent of their body weight. Nevertheless, camels do rely on a special mechanism to keep water loss within a tolerable range: by sweating and panting only when their body temperature exceeds that which would kill a human, they conserve internal water.

Marine vertebrates experience difficulty with their water balance because though there is no shortage of seawater to drink, they must drink a lot of it to maintain their internal fluid balance. But the excess salts from the seawater must be discharged somehow, and the kidneys of most marine vertebrates are unable to excrete a urine in which the salts are more concentrated than in seawater. Most of these animals have special salt-secreting organs outside the kidney that enable them to eliminate excess salt.

Show Spoiler
D
1. Which of the following most accurately states the purpose of the passage?

(A) To compare two different approaches to the study of homeostasis
(B) To summarize the findings of several studies regarding organisms’ maintenance of internal variables in extreme environments
(C) To argue for a particular hypothesis regarding various organisms’ conservation of water in desert environments
(D) To cite examples of how homeostasis is achieved by various organisms
(E) To defend a new theory regarding the maintenance of adequate fluid balance
Show Spoiler
OA &OE 24.A Examples of homeostasis are given, but diff erent approaches to studying it are not discussed.
B The passage describes examples, but it does not summarize studies.
C While the passage does discuss two desert animals, it does not present any argument for a particular hypothesis.
D Correct. The passage discusses the examples of desert rats, camels, and marine vertebrates to show how these organisms are able to achieve homeostasis.
E The passage describes how three organisms maintain water balance, but it presents no theory about it.
The correct answer is D.


Show Spoiler
B
2. It can be inferred from the passage that some mechanisms that regulate internal body temperature, like sweating and panting, can lead to which of the following?

(A) A rise in the external body temperature
(B) A drop in the body’s internal fluid level
(C) A decrease in the osmotic pressure of the blood
(D) A decrease in the amount of renal water loss
(E) A decrease in the urine’s salt content
Show Spoiler
OA &OE 25. A Since a contrast is drawn between the kidneys of camels and those of desert rats, the two must function differently; the passage makes no reference to the kidneys of other rats.
B Correct. The camel’s kidney does nothing special to help the camel cope with its difficult environment.
C No comparison between the kidneys of camels and the kidneys of marine vertebrates is made.
D There is no information given about the kidney structure of most mammals in desert environments so this conclusion is not justified.
E Marine vertebrates have other organs that help eliminate extra salt; camels do not.
The correct answer is B.


Show Spoiler
B
3. It can be inferred from the passage that the author characterizes the camel’s kidney as “entirely unexceptional” (line 26) primarily to emphasize that it

(A) functions much as the kidney of a rat functions
(B) does not aid the camel in coping with the exceptional water loss resulting from the extreme conditions of its environment
(C) does not enable the camel to excrete as much salt as do the kidneys of marine vertebrates
(D) is similar in structure to the kidneys of most mammals living in water-deprived environments
(E) requires the help of other organs in eliminating excess salt
Show Spoiler
OA& OE 26. A Since a contrast is drawn between the kidneys of camels and those of desert rats, the two must function diff erently; the passage makes no reference to the kidneys of other rats.
B Correct. The camel’s kidney does nothing special to help the camel cope with its difficult environment.
C No comparison between the kidneys of camels and the kidneys of marine vertebrates is made.
D There is no information given about the kidney structure of most mammals in desert environments so this conclusion is not justified.
E Marine vertebrates have other organs that help eliminate extra salt; camels do not.
The correct answer is B.

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I start by paraphrasing each paragraph in the notes, each paragraph I paraphrase helps me identify what the main idea is so I keep a general idea mentally till the end.
[*] Describes Homeostasis, which is the process to manage internal fluid balance.
[*] Desert rats maintain water by burrowing and urine
[*] Camels can't store water, so they pant and sweat at high temps
[*] Marine life eliminate salt from the body with an organ outside the kidney
[*] Main idea/purpose is to give various examples of homeostasis in multiple animals.

Question 1 wants the main idea right away. This is pretty easy since I have already done that in my notes.

A, C, and E are all eliminated since the author is clearly describing various methods of homeostasis. We don't see any comparison to various homeostasis methods. There's no arguing from paragraph to paragraph. We don't see a mention of defending a theory.

B looks appealing, but I'm not sold. Since studies on homeostasis isn't mentioned at all in the reading, just examples of types of homeostasis.

D aligns with my main idea that I wrote in my notes, which stated "various examples of homeostasis". Correct!

Question 2 wants us to look at the third paragraph to infer why "sweating and panting" is needed in camels. The sentence we'll read is "by sweating and panting only when their body temperature exceeds that which would kill a human, they(camels) conserve internal water.". So any option that mentions a connection to reducing water loss, conserving water, or maintaining water will be an option to hold on to.

A is the opposite of what we want, eliminate it.

C, D and E don't mention anything related to sentence or outcome from camels panting, and sweating.

B is a direct result of sweating and panting, drop in fluid/water. Correct!

Question 3 emphasizes the kidney performance since the "desert rats’ kidneys can excrete a urine having twice as high a salt content as seawater", so we can assume camels' kidneys do not have the same ability.

A is eliminated based on my inference.

C contradicts my notes since marine life mentioned have an organ outside the kidney to manage salt elimination.

D is out of scope, we don't know that based on the reading.

E is mentioned only in marine animals not in camels.

B is left and aligns with the assumption made when I read the question. Correct!
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Homeostasis, an animal’s maintenance of certain internal variables wit 05 Jan 2023, 08:15
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Kindly explain the answer to question number 3
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Homeostasis, an animal’s maintenance of certain internal variables wit 05 Jan 2023, 11:00
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aksh123456123456
Kindly explain the answer to question number 3
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Explained in the post in the link below

https://gmatclub.com/forum/homeostasis- ... l#p2969001

Cheers
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Homeostasis, an animal’s maintenance of certain internal variables wit 20 Feb 2023, 04:16
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Q1)Which of the following most accurately states the purpose of the passage?

The passage explains homeostasis (maintenance of certain internal variables within an acceptable range) in the first paragraph and then goes on to explain, in the subsequent paragraphs, how different organisms cope to maintain Homeostasis. So option C gives us the entire purpose of the passage.

Q2) It can be inferred from the passage that some mechanisms that regulate internal body temperature, like sweating and panting, can lead to which of the following?

The answer to this can be inferred from the 2nd paragraph; lines(these rats stay in burrows during the hot part of the day, thus avoiding loss of fluid through panting or sweating, which are regulatory mechanisms for maintaining internal body temperature by evaporative cooling).
Hence answer option B.

Q3) It can be inferred from the passage that the author characterizes the camel’s kidney as “entirely unexceptional” (line 26) primarily to emphasize that it

In 2nd paragraph,last line (desert rats’ kidneys can excrete a urine having twice as high a salt content as seawater), the author talks about how rat's kidneys are exceptional in helping them maintain homeostasis. The author hence mentions the kidney of camels to be unexceptional as it does not help them in coping with the water loss. Hence answer option B.
Hope it is helpful!
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Homeostasis, an animal’s maintenance of certain internal variables wit 21 Jul 2025, 23:19
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