Logical reasoning PrepTest 111 · Section 3 · Question 16

Question prompt

Zoos have served both 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

Facts

Valid or Flawed

NA

Question Type

Must Be True Questions

Stimulus Summary

Background - Zoos are educational and entertaining
Causality - Stocking early zoos reduced populations, which endangered animals
New zoo animals --most--> Obtained from captive breeding programs
Zoo --some-- Breeding stock to keep animals alive
Causality - The breeding stocks allows for getting endangered species back in the wild

Answer Anticipation

This is a difficult Must be True question because it presents so much information that could be relevant to a correct answer, and it buries some of it under difficult language. However, there is something that hints at the correct answer, so let’s walk through the stimulus before we look at what that is.
Here, we start off with some background - a weak statement establishing that zoos have served a couple purposes. From there, it moves on to a causal chain from the past (“earliest zoos”) - stocking those zoos reduced populations, which endangered animals.
After that, we move to the present, and we get two quantified statements. The first is about most new zoo animals, and the second is about some zoos. We can’t draw an inference from a most and a some statement, so a combination of these won’t lead to a correct answer.
However, then we get an interesting transition in the last statement - “This makes possible,” referring back to the previous line and connecting it to something else. When multiple statements chain together in a Must be True, it’s a good sign that the combination will lead you to the correct answer.
Here, those two statements tell us that the breeding stocks at some zoos makes it possible to reestablish endangered species in the wild. Let’s find an answer reflecting this inference!

Answer choices

  1. A
    Zoos have played an Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The opening line establishes that zoos have served as educational resources. However, first, there’s no indication that they’re an essential educational resource. And second, there’s no indication that they’re educating people about endangered species.
  2. B
    Some specimens of endangered Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    The stimulus included many weak statements, so we are looking for a weaker answer similar to this one (“Some”). Can we draw this inference? We know that new zoo animals come from captive breeding programs, but we don’t know that these programs are located at the zoos, nor do we know that these new animals are endangered. However, we do know that some zoos maintain breeding stocks of species, and these stocks allow for endangered species to be reestablished in the wild. That very strongly suggests that some of these zoos are maintaining breeding stocks of endangered species, and so there would be some endangered species born at these zoos. Since this answer is supported by the last two statements in the stimulus, it’s the correct answer.
  3. C
    No zoos exploit wild Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    This answer is too extreme in talking about all zoos. The stimulus never makes such a broad statement, nor does it discuss exploiting species.
  4. D
    Nearly all of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Most new zoo animals today were born in captivity. However, there could still be many holdover animals that weren’t born in captivity. (Also, there is a bit of a difference between most and nearly all.)
  5. E
    The main purpose of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    There’s no discussion of the main purpose of zoos, so this answer is unsupported.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B Credited 80%
  3. C 2%
  4. D 12%
  5. E -100%

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