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10 Apr 2016, 22:05
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Hello,
I have a question regarding the RC in the GMAT verbal Official Guide.
Q29) 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
My question is about the answer C. I am trying to understand the GMAT logic here. Entirely unexceptional I thought meant that the Camel's kidney simply did not do a good enough job in coping. Answer C suggests that it does not at all aid in coping which is a bit extreme according to the passage.
I know its the best choice of what's available. I am trying to see how I would apply this logic to future verbal questions. It seems the OG interpreted "entirely unexceptional" to mean "does NOT aid" as opposed to "aids poorly" which I think is what the author meant. I have seen other questions on the GMAT where the choices are eliminated because it considered choices like C extreme.
"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 rat's kidneys can excrete a urine having twice as high a salt content as sea water.
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 thirty percent of their body weight. {{Nevertheless, camels do rely on a special mechanism to keep water loss within a tolerable range: by seating 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 "
I have a question regarding the RC in the GMAT verbal Official Guide.
Q29) 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
My question is about the answer C. I am trying to understand the GMAT logic here. Entirely unexceptional I thought meant that the Camel's kidney simply did not do a good enough job in coping. Answer C suggests that it does not at all aid in coping which is a bit extreme according to the passage.
I know its the best choice of what's available. I am trying to see how I would apply this logic to future verbal questions. It seems the OG interpreted "entirely unexceptional" to mean "does NOT aid" as opposed to "aids poorly" which I think is what the author meant. I have seen other questions on the GMAT where the choices are eliminated because it considered choices like C extreme.
"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 rat's kidneys can excrete a urine having twice as high a salt content as sea water.
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 thirty percent of their body weight. {{Nevertheless, camels do rely on a special mechanism to keep water loss within a tolerable range: by seating 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 "
11 Apr 2016, 00:28
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Hey oasis90,
Here's my 2 cents about this.
I dont think the selection of B over C has so much to do with the 'terminology (extreme or not)' as with the logical structure of the part of passage that mentions about the 'unexceptional kidney' of the camels.
Here's the part of the passage:
"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 thirty percent of their body weight."
Choice C (wrong because):
1) 'Camels, on the other hand':
'On the other hand', shows that what comes next is going to be a compared with what has already been mentioned- The Rats. Please note that the 'kidneys of marine vertebrates' hasn't even been introduced yet.
2) entirely unexceptional kidney results in a rate of water loss through renal function significantly higher than that of desert rats:
What we found in 1) above is evident here. The comparison is between Camel and Rat and not between Camel and Marine vertebrates.
Choice B (correct because):
1) 'unexceptional kidney results in a rate of water loss... As a result, camels must tolerate losses in body water'
All the kidney does is 'results in water loss'. I clearly doesnt help! This is exactly what is given in B.
Now, a bit about your logic. I agree that this 'extreme terminology' logic works very good in CR (only in the answer choices-NEVER apply this in the passage), and in fact over 90% of the times, it helps you eliminate wrongs answers. But, in RC, i believe, rather than relying on the meaning of the terms, we should rely more on the tone of the author- this is one thing in GMAT RC that can prove to be the most beneficial if mastered, especially in the Inference questions.
If you go by getting the meanings of the words such as extremely, entirely etc in RC, you may fall into trouble as the author could use them the way he wants, for instance, sarcastically! Eventually, the intended meaning of a term used in a passage could be diametrically opposite to its literal meaning.
Hope it makes sense.
Here's my 2 cents about this.
I dont think the selection of B over C has so much to do with the 'terminology (extreme or not)' as with the logical structure of the part of passage that mentions about the 'unexceptional kidney' of the camels.
Here's the part of the passage:
"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 thirty percent of their body weight."
Choice C (wrong because):
1) 'Camels, on the other hand':
'On the other hand', shows that what comes next is going to be a compared with what has already been mentioned- The Rats. Please note that the 'kidneys of marine vertebrates' hasn't even been introduced yet.
2) entirely unexceptional kidney results in a rate of water loss through renal function significantly higher than that of desert rats:
What we found in 1) above is evident here. The comparison is between Camel and Rat and not between Camel and Marine vertebrates.
Choice B (correct because):
1) 'unexceptional kidney results in a rate of water loss... As a result, camels must tolerate losses in body water'
All the kidney does is 'results in water loss'. I clearly doesnt help! This is exactly what is given in B.
Now, a bit about your logic. I agree that this 'extreme terminology' logic works very good in CR (only in the answer choices-NEVER apply this in the passage), and in fact over 90% of the times, it helps you eliminate wrongs answers. But, in RC, i believe, rather than relying on the meaning of the terms, we should rely more on the tone of the author- this is one thing in GMAT RC that can prove to be the most beneficial if mastered, especially in the Inference questions.
If you go by getting the meanings of the words such as extremely, entirely etc in RC, you may fall into trouble as the author could use them the way he wants, for instance, sarcastically! Eventually, the intended meaning of a term used in a passage could be diametrically opposite to its literal meaning.
Hope it makes sense.
