I'm still seeing a pile of doubts about Q1 on this passage...
TGC wrote:
GMATPill wrote:
If you read the passage, you'll notice the keyword "But ethologists..."
What was happening before? In the prior sentence, we were talking about NEUROSCIENTISTS. But now, we are talking about ETHOLOGISTS. They have DIFFERENT opinions.
What exactly is the difference? Well, later on, we see that ETHOLOGISTS do not consider Shaker a behavioral gene. Since ethologists and neuroscientists differ in the terms/scope of the word "behavioral gene" -- and ethologists do not consider Shaker a "behavioral gene". Then, well, it's likely that NEUROSCIENTISTS DO consider shaker to be a "behavioral gene".
The key to getting this question correct was to see that the passage compared the perspectives of NEUROSCIENTISTS vs ETHOLOGISTS -- and most of the passage elaborated on the perspective of the ETHOLOGISTS.
I cannot contradict you on this, but I am little convinced.
The only information we have regarding NEUROSCIENTISTS is that they define the term 'Behavioral gene' broadly.
And on the other hand ETHOLOGISTS define the term 'Behavioral gene' narrowly.
Now, shaker is not considered as BG by ETHOLOGISTS, but that doesn't mean that shaker will be considered by NEUROSC as BG.
Broadly is not OPPOSITE of narrowly, it is just the difference in scope.
NEUROSC may or may not consider Shaker as a BG.
Please advise !
oanhnguyen1116 wrote:
, do you find out a convincing answer? I am stuck in this point like you.
psaikrishna90 wrote:
Hello Experts, mikemcgarryGMATNinja ,
I am not really convinced with the OA of 1st Question below.
1. The passage suggests that neuroscientists would most likely consider Shaker to be which of the following?
A. An example of a behavioral gene
B. One of multiple genes that control a single behavior
C. A gene that, when mutated, causes an alteration in a specific normal behavior without making the organism ill
D. A gene of interest to ethologists but of no interest to neuroscientists
E. A poor source of information about the nervous system
I chose B, because of this sentence in the passage - In the first place, most behaviors are governed by more than one gene,
Please explain how B is wrong and A is correct.
narmfarmer wrote:
I had the same problem with question 1, and it took me a few readings before I could imply that A is corrrect
here's my take on why question 1's OA is A
this excerpt's idea, as mentioned in the first two sentences, is that the study of behavioral genes are uncertain
and this is because 1. behavior genes are hard to identify, and 2. experts in different fields disagree with each other
and then the author supports this by listing the example of Neuroscientists and Ethologists, neuro's views are broad while etho's views are narrow
this is followed by the example of the shaker gene, author's purpose of using the shaker gene example is to point out the uncertainty of study due to these experts' disagreements.
so the answer choice to question 1 must be something in contrast of the Ethologist viewpoint
B doesn't feature enough conflict, also behaviors can also be dictated by a single gene as mentioned sentence 3.
C is too specific of an implication and is not as 'safe' as A
D and E are fillers
A is then a somewhat general answer
and I think it only works because the author's purpose of "Neuro vs Etho" is to point out conflicting perspectives
This might sound obvious, but the most important thing here is to remember what the question asks us to do:
Quote:
1. The passage suggests that neuroscientists would most likely consider Shaker to be which of the following?
This comes up in CR all the time. The task of this question is
not to identify an ironclad inference. We
do not have to find a statement that is 100% logically airtight. Instead, the question asks us:
From the author's perspective, which of these choices gets closest to what neuroscientists believe about Shaker?"
We'll get to the right answer choice by eliminating anything that explicitly contradicts the passage and keeping the choice that (according to the passage) is
most likely what neuroscientists believe.
Quote:
A. An example of a behavioral gene
Hmmm, seems simple enough!
The author brings up neuroscientists and ethologists because they have contrasting definitions of what a "behavioral gene" is. Then the author offers the fruit fly and its Shaker gene
as an example of that contrast. Ethologists
do not consider Shaker to be a behavioral gene. So it's fair to say that the author
suggests that neuroscientists would consider Shaker to be a behavioral gene.
This isn't 100% airtight, but we don't need airtight. We need something that neuroscientists
would most likely consider Shaker to be. So let's keep (A) around, and see if anything else gets us closer.
Quote:
B. One of multiple genes that control a single behavior
A similar statement appears at the start of the passage:
"In the first place, most behaviors are governed by more than one gene."
So we have a fact regarding
most behaviors. And this is a textbook example of an answer choice that "just sounds right." But the question asks us specifically what
neuroscientists most likely believe to be true about
Shaker in particular. We're missing critical information to connect the dots here:
- We don't see any information explicitly telling us that the shaking behavior caused by mutations in Shaker is influenced by multiple genes.
- We don't see any suggestion that neuroscientists think this shaking behavior is included in the group of "most behaviors" that are governed by multiple genes.
This lack of information alone may not be enough to eliminate choice (B). However, it is enough to reject (B) in favor of (A).
All we know is that "researchers have identified
THE gene Shaker, mutations in which cause flies to shake violently under anesthesia." If anything, this suggests that Shaker is in fact the
only gene governing the shaking behavior. After all, the mutations that cause violent shaking take place within Shaker -- which has been apparently named after the behavior it causes. The earlier statement about
most behaviors (not all behaviors) doesn't override the evidence about this particular behavior.
Choice (A) is already a much simpler and better supported choice, so let's stick with (A) and eliminate (B).
Quote:
C. A gene that, when mutated, causes an alteration in a specific normal behavior without making the organism ill
According to the passage, there's no denying that mutation in Shaker causes fruit flies to become ill, regardless of whether you're a neuroscientist or an ethologist. Eliminate (C).
Quote:
D. A gene of interest to ethologists but of no interest to neuroscientists
There's absolutely nothing in the passage to back this up or even suggest that neuroscientists has "no interest" in Shaker. Eliminate (D).
Quote:
E. A poor source of information about the nervous system
There's absolutely nothing in the passage to back this up or even suggest that neuroscientists consider Shaker to be "a poor source of information" about the nervous system. Eliminate (E).
I hope this helps Shake off your doubts about the OA! (Ha. I'm hilarious. Or not...
)
close
Updated on: 21 Aug 2020, 19:56
35%
(medium)
38%
(03:14) wrong 
