Logical reasoning PrepTest 105 · Section 2 · Question 8

Question prompt

Millions of female bats Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Valid

Question Type

Methods of Reasoning Questions

Stimulus Summary

Phenomenon - Mother bats find their pups. The only way to find each other is with calls, and the pups can’t tell their mom’s apart Explanation - The mom’s must tell the pups apart.

Answer Anticipation

As with all Methods of Reasoning questions, we should be reading to see if we can identify any common methods of reasoning present in the stimulus. Here, the argument falls into a common pattern - Phenomenon/Explanation. A phenomenon is noted (bat moms finding their pups), and an explanation is concluded (the bat mom recognizes the call of her pup). How does it get to that explanation? First, it establishes that finding the pup must involve the recognition of the call, as there’s no other means for bats to find each other. And from there, it rules out one possibility - the pup finds the mom by recognizing her call. That leaves only the possibility that the mom finds the pup by recognizing its call. Let’s find an answer that mentions that common method of reasoning.

Answer choices

  1. A
    derive a general conclusion Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The conclusion is about the mother bats in Bracken Cave, based on generalized knowledge about all such bats, so there are no representative members used as the basis for the conclusion.
  2. B
    establish the validity of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    The argument shows that the moms and pups find each other through their calls. It then rules out one possibility - the pups recognize their moms’s calls and find them - to conclude another - the moms recognize the calls of their pups. This answer is therefore correct.
  3. C
    support, by describing a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    This answer would be correct if the conclusion stated that the bats use their calls to locate each other, and the premises describe how bats can recognize the calls of specific other bats. Instead, that they can find each other with their calls is a premise. There’s actually no mechanism by which bats could recognize each other by their calls mentioned - just that the mamma bats can!
  4. D
    conclude that members of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    The two groups here would be the mom bats and the pups, but the stimulus highlights an ability that they don’t share - the ability to distinguish calls.
  5. E
    demonstrate that a general Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    The argument doesn’t bring up a general rule to apply in a particular case. Any general rule here is about the bats in Bracken Cave, and the conclusion is about all such bats.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 15%
  2. B Credited 71%
  3. C 9%
  4. D 3%
  5. E 2%

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