Question 6
Jainam24 wrote:
GMATNinja, went through your fantastic no retakes class on RC topics don't matter - Science Passages just a while back. Despite the clarity with which I understood the passage through your brief notes and apt explanation, I found myself utterly confused between option B and D in Question 6 and spent about 4 minutes to get the ans right. Specifically I have the following questions with regard to B and D:
- Doesn't D look like almost regurgitating from the passage?
- Team McKay's objective was to prove existence of life in Mars through PAHs so why wouldn't they agree to B?
- Are the options close or was I hallucinating?
- Is extreme langauge a solid reason to eliminate such close options? Sometimes being to focused on modifiers and extreme language in option seems akin to "awkward" and wordy grounds on SC which I totally agree with you aren't solid grounds for elimination. So should I eliminate options on those grounds?
- A more general question: I do always get into this trap of last 2 options and inevitably mark the one that isn't the ans. Other than comprehending well both passage and options is there any approach that I could use?
Curious to know what are your thoughts. Thanks again Charles
(B) and (D) for this question aren't really "close" to one another, unfortunately. Here's a general rant about what might be happening when you're stuck between two answer choices:
It's not that uncommon to be stuck between two answer choices -- after all, it could be that the person who wrote the question only had one great idea for a "tempting" incorrect answer choice.
Unfortunately, a near-miss is still a miss on the GMAT. “Close” might be a great result if you’re playing shuffleboard, horseshoes, or Russian roulette, but it doesn’t mean anything on a multiple choice test. You're not necessarily close to a score breakthrough just because you’ve narrowed your critical reasoning or reading comprehension questions down to the last two options.
If you miss a GMAT CR or RC question, it’s probably because you misread or misinterpreted something, either in the answer choices or in the passage itself. Even if you feel like you’re “close” on the majority of your misses, stay focused on
the fundamentals: read with laser-like precision, practice hard using official GMAT and LSAT questions, and concentrate on honing your ability to distinguish between similar-sounding answer choices.
Eventually, you can get substantially better at catching the nuances of GMAT verbal passages, questions, and answer choices. On the majority of GMAT verbal questions, you’ll still be forced into a difficult choice between the last two answers. But as you strengthen your ability to understand the phrasing and logic behind CR and RC questions, you’ll choose the correct option more and more frequently.
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Rant over, now back to the question at hand: to answer question 6, we need to find which answer choice McKay's team would agree with.
McKay's team thinks that this particular meteorite contains evidence of life on Mars. In the second paragraph, the author presents some points from people who are skeptical of this claim, and then shows how McKay would respond to these points:
- Skeptical point #1: Maybe the meteorite just got contaminated by PAHs from earth.
- McKay response: There are more PAH's deeper in the rock than on the surface
- Skeptical point #2: PAHs can be produced by non-organic processes
- McKay's response: the particular combination of PAHs in ALH84001 is more similar to the combinations produced by decaying organisms than to those originating from non biological processes.
Question #6 asks particularly about the PAHs mentioned in skeptical point #2. What would McKay's team think about these non-organic PAHs?
Quote:
(B) These PAHs are not likely to be found in any meteorite that originated from Mars.
There's no evidence that McKay's team would agree with this. McKay says that the
particular combination of PAHs in this
specific meteorite seem organic in origin. He never argues that non-organic PAHs wouldn't be found in ANY rocks coming from Mars.
Sure, McKay is trying to convince the skeptics that the meteorite contains evidence of life on Mars. But there's no indication in the passage that McKay would bury his head in the sand and deny that non-organic PAHs exist on Mars. Instead, he takes the much more reasonable stance that the particular PAHs in this particular meteorite are more likely to be organic in nature.
There's no evidence that McKay's team would agree with (B), so eliminate this answer choice.
A note on extreme language: it is definitely important to notice extreme language in an answer choice -- here, the word "any" makes (B) a very strong statement. However, the mere
presence of extreme language isn't enough to make a decision (there are plenty of correct answers that contain strong language). Instead, just think about how those key words impact the meaning of the answer choice as a whole, and then use this assessment when considering whether you can eliminate that answer choice.
Quote:
(D) These PAHs are likely to be found in combinations that distinguish them from the PAHs produced by organic processes.
Does this merely regurgitate info from the passage? Yeah, kind of (although not explicitly). Is that a deal breaker? Not at all! We're just trying to find a statement that McKay would agree with, and he would definitely agree with (D). McKay argues that the combination of PAHs in the meteorite indicates that they originated from an organic source. So, he would agree that
non-organic PAHs are likely to be found in combinations that can be distinguished from organic PAHs.
McKay's team would agree with (D), so (D) is the correct answer to question 6.
I hope that helps!
close
05 Nov 2020, 12:15
