Scientist: Some colonies of bacteria produce antibiotic molecules call

Question Type:
Strengthen

Stimulus Breakdown:
Hypothesis: P creates pipelines to interior bacteria so they can eat.

Answer Anticipation:
"Essential" nutrients is a key phrase here, as it denotes that these nutrients are needed by the bacteria. I don't know how that's going to play into the answer, but it seems important because of the extreme language.

We don't really have any premises here; we're trying to support a hypothesis that P does this necessary function. I'm therefore expecting the answer choice to either give evidence that P actually does this (studies; chemistry explaining how it works) or that bacteria without P have to find some other way to carry out this essential function.

Correct answer:
(A)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) It would be easy to eliminate this on the first pass by (incorrectly) thinking that bacteria without P is out of scope. However, since we know P carries out an essential function, we do actually know something about non-P bacteria from the stimulus - they must find another way to do this essential function. This answer choice explains what that is - they get wrinkly so they don't need pipelines - the bacteria directly gets the nutrients.

Compared to (C), this answer is directly tied to the hypothesis. (C) definitely suggests P is related to nutrition, but it doesn't mention how it's related (the argument needs it to form pipelines). (A) definitely gets at the pipelines by suggesting a similar alternative for bacteria that lack P. This answer also connects it to nutrition, though not directly. The hypothesis states the essential nutrients are in the surrounding area, and (A) mentions access to the surrounding area, thus indirectly bringing nutrition into this answer. Since it has all the components of the hypothesis whereas (C) lacks some, this is our answer.

This absolutely would not be a first-round pick. Absolutely not. The important thing for this question is to get this answer to survive your first pass.

(B) Wrong scope. This answer suggests that P is more closely related to its other purported function - fending off other bacteria. That definitely doesn't strengthen a conclusion about using it to eat.

(C) Tempting. Very tempting. This answer choice definitely is in scope since it deals with nutrients. I think this question should have come down to (A) vs. (C)

At that point, looking at the two answers, this one talks about nutrients but not the pipeline; (A) talks about the pipeline (by establishing an alternative) but not nutrients. This would then require looking at the hypothesis to see which is closer.

Checking the hypothesis, it's about P forming pipelines to the surrounding area to give access to nutrients. This answer choice suggests P has something to do with nutrients, but there's no information about how it's related. Since this answer doesn't impact the likelihood that pipelines are formed, we can rule it out.

(D) Similar to (B), this answer choice connects P with fending off other bacteria, so it doesn't support an argument about it being used to eat.

(E) Missing scope. Why are they dying? It could be from lack of food (which would actually suggest that P isn't fully doing its job), but it could also be from other factors (in which case this answer isn't about eating at all, and it's out of scope). Since this answer leaves us with questions, it can't have an impact on the conclusion.

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