Some modern anthropologists hold that biological evolution has shaped

Question

Some modern anthropologists hold that biological evolution has shaped not only human morphology but also human behavior. The role those anthropologists ascribe to evolution is not of dictating the details of human behavior but one of imposing constraints— ways of feeling, thinking, and acting that “come naturally” in archetypal situations in any culture. Our “frailties”—emotions and motives such as rage, fear, greed, gluttony, joy, lust, love—may be a very mixed assortment, but they share at least one immediate quality: we are, as we say, “in the grip” of them. And thus they give us our sense of constraints. Unhappily, some of those frailties—our need for ever increasing security among them—are presently maladaptive. Yet beneath the overlay of cultural detail, they, too, are said to be biological in direction, and therefore as natural to us as are our appendixes. We would need to comprehend thoroughly their adaptive origins in order to understand how badly they guide us now. And we might then begin to resist their pressure.   1 
 A 
1. The primary purpose of the passage is to present
A. a position on the foundations of human behavior and on what those foundations imply
B. a theory outlining the parallel development of human morphology and of human behavior
C. a diagnostic test for separating biologically determined behavior patterns from culture-specific detail
D. a practical method for resisting the pressures of biologically determined drives
E. an overview of those human emotions and motives that impose constraints on human behavior

2 
 D 
2. The author implies that control to any extent over the “frailties” that constrain our behavior is thought to presuppose
A. that those frailties are recognized as currently beneficial and adaptive
B. that there is little or no overlay of cultural detail that masks their true nature
C. that there are cultures in which those frailties do not “come naturally” and from which such control can be learned
D. a full understanding of why those frailties evolved and of how they function now
E. a thorough grasp of the principle that cultural detail in human behavior can differ arbitrarily from society to society

3 
 E 
3. It can be inferred that in his discussion of maladaptive frailties the author assumes that
A. evolution does not favor the emergence of adaptive characteristics over the emergence of maladaptive ones
B. any structure or behavior not positively adaptive is regarded as transitory in evolutionary theory
C. maladaptive characteristics, once fixed, make the emergence of other maladaptive characteristics more likely
D. the designation of a characteristic as being maladaptive must always remain highly tentative 
E. changes in the total human environment can outpace evolutionary change

ConnectTheDots · Accepted Answer

Paraphrase: 
Some modern anthropologists say biological evolution has shaped both morphology and human behavior. According to them evolution controls human behavior by restricting, not by dictating, human behavior. Restriction is done by controlling ways of feeling, thinking and acting - these are typical to any culture. Our(Human) weaknesses (emotions and motives such as rage, fear etc) may be unique in their own way, but still they share a common character. i.e Humans are controlled by these weakness(frailties).

Unfortunately, some of these weaknesses (frailties) are presently out of order (maladaptive = wrongly configured). These weaknesses may seem to be determined by culture,but biology(evolution) plays a great role as well. We have to completely understand how these weaknesses originated, then only we can understand how they restrict us. And if we understand how they restrict us, we might get out of their restriction.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to present
A. a position on the foundations of human behavior and on what those foundations imply
 Correct: The passage first says what position the anthropologists hold(evolution-human behaviour relationship), then say what we get of this position(we can get out of maladaptive behavior)
 B. a theory outlining the parallel development of human morphology and of human behavior
 Incorrect: The passage just mentions evolution shapes both morphology and human behavior. It never draws parallel. All the description is about human behaviour only. 
C. a diagnostic test for separating biologically determined behavior patterns from culture-specific detail
 Incorrect: No test is mentioned. The passage just says, behavior patterns are influenced by both culture(superficially) and biologically(may be actually). But never tries to separate them.
 D. a practical method for resisting the pressures of biologically determined drives
 Incorrect: No method is suggested. The second paragraph just mention, if we understand origin of biologically determined drives, we may someday control it. It is a theoretical possibility or unproven hypothesis, not a certain practical method.
 E. an overview of those human emotions and motives that impose constraints on human behavior
 Incorrect: Human emotions and motives do not impose constraints on human behavior. But evolution does. No overview is provided about emotions and motives, they are just mentioned. Paragraph is all about how evolution shapes human behavior and emotions and motives just come within the scope.

2. The author implies that control to any extent over the “frailties” that constrain our behavior is thought to presuppose

A. that those frailties are recognized as currently beneficial and adaptive
 Incorrect: Some of them are maladaptive. 
B. that there is little or no overlay of cultural detail that masks their true nature
 Incorrect: Too negative, the author says frailties are masked by culture. ( beneath the overlay of cultural detail) 
C. that there are cultures in which those frailties do not “come naturally” and from which such control can be learned
 Incorrect: Author never says control can be learned. The passage mentions frailties are typical to any culture and we need to find their origin, if we want to control them. 
D. a full understanding of why those frailties evolved and of how they function now
 Correct: This is what the author says in the last two lines. If frailties were not constraining human behavior, then we will get nothing by understanding the evolution of fralities and the conclusion of the passage becomes illogical. 
 E. a thorough grasp of the principle that cultural detail in human behavior can differ arbitrarily from society to society
 Incorrect: As per the passage, culture superficially constrain frailty and culture differs from society to society. But nothing is mentioned in the passage about understanding of culture.

3. It can be inferred that in his discussion of maladaptive frailties the author assumes that
A. evolution does not favor the emergence of adaptive characteristics over the emergence of maladaptive ones
 Correct: The author says " We would need to comprehend thoroughly their adaptive origin". Means maladaptive behaviour has adaptive origin. If it is other way arround (adaptive has maladaptive origin), then the author would be at wrong. This option eliminates reverse cause-effect relationship.
 B. any structure or behavior not positively adaptive is regarded as transitory in evolutionary theory
 Incorrect: Maladaptive behavior: transitory - yes. as per author we might one day change. But Evolutionary theory ? - No, if we can change, it would be in artificial ways, not natural evolution.
 C. maladaptive characteristics, once fixed, make the emergence of other maladaptive characteristics more likely
 Incorrect: No. Maladaptive behavior has adaptive origin. 
D. the designation of a characteristic as being maladaptive must always remain highly tentative
 Incorrect: No. Nothing is said about definition. We need to study orgin of current maladaptive behavior. If the behavior is not considered maladaptive, we can stop studying its origin. We need not fix the definition. 
E. changes in the total human environment can outpace evolutionary change
 Incorrect: Nothing is mentioned about priorities. Human environment(less specifically culture) may be only outer layer in behavior determinants, nut they needn't necessarily outpace evolution.

tgt2012 · Answer

RC Passage is below:

Some modern anthropologists hold that biological
evolution has shaped not only human morphology but
also human behavior. The role those anthropologists
ascribe to evolution is not of dictating the details of
human behavior but one of imposing constraints—
ways of feeling, thinking, and acting that “come
naturally” in archetypal situations in any culture. Our
“frailties”—emotions and motives such as rage, fear,
greed, gluttony, joy, lust, love—may be a very mixed
assortment, but they share at least one immediate
quality: we are, as we say, “in the grip” of them. And
thus they give us our sense of constraints.
Unhappily, some of those frailties—our need for ever increasing
security among them—are presently
maladaptive. Yet beneath the overlay of cultural detail,
they, too, are said to be biological in direction, and
therefore as natural to us as are our appendixes. We
would need to comprehend thoroughly their adaptive
origins in order to understand how badly they guide us
now. And we might then begin to resist their pressure.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
present
A. a position on the foundations of human behavior -----> I found it imperfect
and on what those foundations imply
B. a theory outlining the parallel development of ----> not talked about human morphology
human morphology and of human behavior
C. a diagnostic test for separating biologically ---> out of context
determined behavior patterns from culture-specific
detail
D. a practical method for resisting the pressures of ----------> not talked
biologically determined drives
E. an overview of those human emotions and motives ----------> I think it should be the answer
that impose constraints on human behavior

2. The author implies that control to any extent
over the “frailties” that constrain our
behavior is thought to presuppose
A. that those frailties are recognized as currently
beneficial and adaptive
B. that there is little or no overlay of cultural detail
that masks their true nature
C. that there are cultures in which those frailties do
not “come naturally” and from which such control
can be learned
D. a full understanding of why those frailties evolved ------> ( We would need to comprehend thoroughly their adaptive
origins in order to understand how badly they guide us
now. And we might then begin to resist their pressure.
and of how they function now )
E. a thorough grasp of the principle that cultural
detail in human behavior can differ arbitrarily from
society to society

3. It can be inferred that in his discussion of
maladaptive frailties the author assumes
that
A. evolution does not favor the emergence of ---- > (some of those frailties—our need for ever increasing
security among them—are presently
maladaptive. Yet beneath the overlay of cultural detail,
they, too, are said to be biological in direction, and
therefore as natural to us as are our appendixes. We
would need to comprehend thoroughly their adaptive
origins in order to understand how badly they guide us
now.
adaptive characteristics over the emergence of
maladaptive ones
B. any structure or behavior not positively adaptive is
regarded as transitory in evolutionary theory
C. maladaptive characteristics, once fixed, make the
emergence of other maladaptive characteristics
more likely
D. the designation of a characteristic as being
maladaptive must always remain highly tentative
E. changes in the total human environment can
outpace evolutionary change

----------------------------------------------------
So my answers are EDA.
-------------------------------------
Please let me know if my answers are wrong / waiting for OA and OE
---------------------------------------------------
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anud33p · Answer

I think there are some incorrect answers here. The answer to the third question should be E.

mimishyu · Answer

3. It can be inferred that in his discussion of maladaptive frailties the author assumes that
A. evolution does not favor the emergence of adaptive characteristics over the emergence of maladaptive onescorrect
B. any structure or behavior not positively adaptive(maladaptive) is regarded as transitory in evolutionary theory-no where in the passage of evolutionary theory mention ‘transitory’….
C. maladaptive characteristics, once fixed, make the emergence of other maladaptive characteristics more likely
D. the designation of a characteristic as being maladaptive must always remain highly tentative 
E. changes in the total human environment can outpace evolutionary change

Hi ConnectTheDots

I’m sorry that I cannot quite understand your explanation to Q3
So from these sentences….
Unhappily, some of those frailties—our need for ever increasing security among them—are presently maladaptive. Yet beneath the overlay of cultural detail, they, too, are said to be biological in direction, and therefore as natural to us as are our appendixes. We would need to comprehend thoroughly their adaptive origins in order to understand how badly they guide us now.

Is it that the author say…maladaptive has its adaptive origin
So the author view adaptive as important as maladaptive
Thus the author “does not favor the emergence of adaptive characteristics over the emergence of maladaptive ones …”???

thinkvision · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja  /  generis  - Trust you are doing well. Would you be able to help on ques 3?

Appreciate your help!

nityakaul02 · Answer

what is the difficulty of each question. i found it quite challenging .

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Question #1: 700
Question #2: 700
Question #3: 750

Overall: 700

kntombat · Answer

Can someone explain why is E the right answer for question 3?

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Hi

Let us read the portion of the passage referred to in Q3.

Unhappily, some of those frailties—our need for ever increasing security among them—are  presently  maladaptive. Yet beneath the overlay of cultural detail, they, too, are said to be biological in direction, and therefore as natural to us as are our appendixes. We would need to comprehend thoroughly their adaptive origins in order to understand how badly they guide us now. And we might then begin to resist their pressure.

The key word here is "presently", meaning to say that they are maladaptive (defined as "not adjusting adequately or appropriately to the environment or situation")  in the present . The author is implying here that, probably, at some point in the past, these "frailties" would have been necessary character traits but they are not so relevant to the present environment in which we live. With this in mind, let us examine the options:

A. evolution does not favor the emergence of adaptive characteristics over the emergence of maladaptive ones  The passage states that maladaptive traits are also "biological", which means they would have come about as a result of evolution. Eliminate.

B. any structure or behavior not positively adaptive is regarded as transitory in evolutionary theory  There is no discussion about "transitionary" behavior at all. Eliminate.

C. maladaptive characteristics, once fixed, make the emergence of other maladaptive characteristics more likely  There is no discussion about such traits leading to emergence of other traits. Eliminate.

D. the designation of a characteristic as being maladaptive must always remain highly tentative  No such inference or discussion about these traits being "tentatively" designated (for instance, of such traits changing from being maladaptive to necessary). Eliminate.

E. changes in the total human environment can outpace evolutionary change  Since these traits were once necessary but are now considered maladaptive, clearly evolutionary change has not kept pace with changes in human environment. Correct answer.

Hope this helps.

Jarvis07 · Answer

A lot of queries about question 3. However, there are no good comprehensive replies.
Posting one here:

The author implies that changes in the total human environment can outpace evolutionary change in the context of   maladaptive frailties  . 
This can be inferred from the sentence, "  Unhappily, some of those frailties—our need for ever increasing security among them—are presently maladaptive.  "

The author suggests that some of our frailties are  no longer adaptive or beneficial  in our current environment, which implies that  changes in the environment have outpaced evolutionary changes , making certain traits or behaviors maladaptive.

Therefore, option E, "changes in the total human environment can outpace evolutionary change," is the correct answer. The other options are not directly supported by the information in the given paragraph.

RJ_Joker · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja , please explain how an E is wrong for answer 1?

Posted from my mobile device

kpop1234567890 · Answer

KarishmaB  can you help with Q3

Agarwal2003 · Answer

I do not understand why option A is incorrect. Can you pls explain in a bit of detail?

Some modern anthropologists hold that biological evolution has shaped

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Some modern anthropologists hold that biological evolution has shaped

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