What makes a worker ant perform one particular task rather than anothe

Question

What makes a worker ant perform one particular task rather than another? From the 1970s to the mid-1980s, researchers emphasized internal factors within individual ants, such as polymorphism, the presence in the nest of workers of different shapes and sizes, each suited to a particular task. Other elements then considered to have primary influence upon an ant’s career were its age—it might change tasks as it got older—and its genetics. However, subsequent ant researchers have focused on external prompts for behavior. In advocating this approach, Deborah Gordon cites experiments in which intervention in a colony’s makeup perturbed worker activity. By removing workers or otherwise altering the nest conditions, researchers were able to change the tasks performed by individual workers.    1 
 For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.

1. According to the passage, which of the following factors were considered from the 1970s to the mid-1980s to influence the division of labor among a colony’s worker ants?

A. Ants’ inherited traits
B. Te age of the ants
C. Te ants’ experiences outside the nest

2  
 For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.

2. It can be inferred from the passage that Gordon and earlier researchers would agree with which of the following statements about worker ants?

A. Disruption of the nest can affect workers’ roles.
B. Genetics predominates over other factors in determining a worker ant’s role.
C. An individual worker’s tasks can change during its lifetime.

3  
 For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.

3. The last sentence has which of the following functions in the passage?

A. It explains how the experiments performed by Gordon differed from those performed by earlier researchers.
B. It justifes the methodology of the experiments cited by Gordon.
C. It gives details showing how the experiments cited by Gordon support her position.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE

1. According to the passage, which of the following factors were considered from the 1970s to the mid-1980s to influence the division of labor among a colony’s worker ants?  
 
The passage discusses research aimed at discovering factors that determine the division of labor among ants and talks about a shif in focus from internal to external factors that occurred during the 1980s. 
 
 Choices A  and  B  are correct. The question asks about the factors considered to affect ant roles in the earlier period under discussion. Describing the period from the 1970s to the mid-1980s, the passage states that  “Other elements then considered to have primary influence upon an ant’s career were its age . . . and its genetics.” Choice C  is incorrect: the passage never discusses ants’ experiences outside the nest. 
 
  Answer: A,B

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE

2. It can be inferred from the passage that Gordon and earlier researchers would agree with which of the following statements about worker ants?

Choice C  is correct. The question asks about points that Gordon and earlier researchers would agree on.

Choice A  is incorrect: Nest disruption is an external factor favored by later researchers such as Gordon, but there is no suggestion that earlier researchers considered it a factor.

Choice B  is incorrect: Earlier researchers might have thought that genetics was a predominant factor, but the later work showed that other factors could override genetics.

Choice C  is correct: Both earlier and later researchers knew that an individual worker ant can change its role. According to the passage, the earlier researchers thought that an ant  “might change tasks as it got older,”  and later researchers  “were able to change the tasks performed by individual workers.”  
 
  Answer: C

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE

3. The last sentence has which of the following functions in the passage?

Choice C  is correct. Te question asks about the role of the last sentence.

Choice A  is incorrect: the passage never mentions any experiments performed by earlier researchers.

Choice B  is incorrect: the last sentence simply describes the experiments and their results but does not make any attempt to justify their methodology.

Choice C  is correct: the experiments described in the last sentence show that ants’ roles in the nest can be affected by external conditions, and Gordon is described in the passage as  “advocating this approach.”  
 
  Answer: C

What makes a worker ant perform one particular task rather than anothe

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