Reading comp PrepTest 134 · Section 4 · Question 17

Passage

Questions 13-19 Passage A  .        Evolutionary psychology has taught us to examine  . human behavior from the standpoint of Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Science


Passage A

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • An approach is described, and a question/problem with it is noted
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Approach - Evolutionary Psychology - Apply evolution (proliferation of genes) to behavior
    • Problem - How do you explain altruism?

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • A probable answer is provided
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Probable answer - Identification/empathy - Help those with similar appearance and thus probably same genes
    • Pass on genes for empathy/identification

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Progression of evolution noted
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Start - Small, kin-based groups that promoted altruistic genes
    • Later - Larger groups when people had altruistic genes, expanded to cover others

Passage B

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • An approach is heavily criticized
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Evolutionary Psychology - “conspiracy theory” - genes are said to have motives, when could be you just love your kids

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • (Concession) Why Evolutionary Psychology is persuasive
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Example - Monogamy/slowly maturing offspring = monogamy is to propagate genes

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Author’s criticism of Evolutionary Psychology is fleshed out
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Overall strength of opinion - EPs may be right, may be wrong
    • Flaw - Pick one explanation when “all sorts” are possible
    • Need to show - Explanation makes sense and is “only” explanation
    • Humans might do X because of Y, or might do X because they like X

Main Points:

Passage A - While altruism might appear problematic to Evolutionary Psychology, an evolutionary drive to propagate your own genes can explain why humans evolved to help others in need.

Passage B - Evolutionary Psychology can appear persuasive on its face, but it rests on an assumption about the motives of genes that it hasn’t shown to be true because there are alternative explanations.

Key Lines?

Passage A:

  • Lines 1-3 - A key approach/field is introduced
  • Lines 7-12 - A problem/question about that theory is raised
  • Lines 13-14 - A probable answer is presented
  • Lines 24-26 - That answer is explained

Passage B:

  • Lines 35-38 - The Author criticizes (strongly) an approach/field
  • Lines 43-44 - The Author concedes that the opposing view (approach/field) is initially persuasive
  • Line 53 - The Author shows his opinion to be more middling than Paragraph 1 may suggest
  • Lines 54-56 - The Author’s key criticism is noted (there are alternative explanations)
  • Lines 56-59 - A requirement for the opposing side is raised

Meta-Structure? Relationship Between Passages?

Both passages discuss Evolutionary Psychology, but they have very different opinions on it. The Author of Passage A has bought into the field, saying that it has taught us how to examine human behavior. It does raise a “thorny” question, but the Author believes there’s an answer to it. The Author of Passage B, on the other hand, believes that the field is a “kind of conspiracy theory,” though he does walk that back a bit by saying that evolutionary psychologists may be right or may be wrong. While the initial language might suggest a much more negative view in Passage B, it turns out that the Author believes that there’s a logical flaw/shortcoming in their argument that needs to be addressed, but he’s not committed to saying the field is definitely wrong.

Question/Answer - The Author of Passage A brings up a “thorny” issue for Evolutionary Psychology - altruism. Why would someone spend resources to help others if behavior is driven by evolution? She presents a probable answer in Paragraph 2 that she then explores through the rest of the passage. An answer to a key question is generally the main point of the passage, leading us to the main point as we wrote it out. Passage B also has a Question/Answer structure, presenting a question at the end of Paragraph 2 that calls the concession it makes into question. And, similar to Passage A, the answer to the question largely drives the main point - that the evolutionary psychologists might be right or might be wrong - they’ve put forward an explanation without showing it to be the only explanation.

Last Thoughts?

Passage B, in particular, is a bit weird. The opening paragraph makes the viewpoint sound very strong, but the Author walks it back in Paragraph 2 (by making a concession about the apparent plausibility of Evolutionary Psychology) and in Paragraph 3 by suggesting that it might be correct. We should be careful in analyzing answers about the Author’s attitude in that passage, as it’s much more nuanced than it initially appears.

Question prompt

How does the purpose Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

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

Question Type

Science

Strategy Overview

Review how we defined the relationship between Passages A and B, then find an answer that correctly characterizes that relationship

Answer Anticipation

After tackling the passages, this is what we said about their relationship:Both passages discuss Evolutionary Psychology, but they have very different opinions on it. The Author of Passage A has bought into the field, saying that it has taught us how to examine human behavior. It does raise a “thorny” question, but the Author believes there’s an answer to it. The Author of Passage B, on the other hand, believes that the field is a “kind of conspiracy theory,” though he does walk that back a bit by saying that evolutionary psychologists may be right or may be wrong. While the initial language might suggest a much more negative view in Passage B, it turns out that the Author believes that there’s a logical flaw/shortcoming in their argument that needs to be addressed, but he’s not committed to saying the field is definitely wrong.So Passage A is defending Evolutionary Psychology against a potential problem by appealing to an explanation that makes sense in the context of the theory. The Author of Passage B, on the other hand, is attacking that theory for resting on a logical flaw - it assumes one explanation when others exist. Since the Author of Passage A makes an argument that puts forward the explanation that the Author of Passage B finds questionable (that genes are motivated to promote themselves, explaining altruistic behavior), Passage B is meant to call into question the logic of an argument such as the one in Passage A. Let’s find an answer describing that relationship.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The author of passage Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 1-2; Lines 35-36; Line 53) Passage A believes in evolutionary psychology, whereas Passage B isn’t so sure, so this answer aligning the two passages is incorrect.

  2. B
    The author of passage Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 53-59) Passage A makes an argument through the lens of an evolutionary psychologist by explaining altruism through the desire of genes to propagate. The Author of Passage B does criticize this type of argument, but he doesn’t do so by bringing up an analogous argument - that would be a Reduction to the Absurd-style rebuttal. Rather, he points out a shortcoming in the argument - that it assumes one explanation when others are possible.

  3. C
    The author of passage Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) The observations in Passage A deal with certain behavior, and the Author of Passage B doesn’t claim that those behaviors are based on inaccurate observations. Rather, it’s the explanation for that behavior that Passage B questions.

  4. D
    The author of passage Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Lines 56-59) The Author of Passage B brings up the evidence that would be required to prove the claims in Passage A - an interest that explains a certain behavior that nothing else could explain. He then notes that such cases are “vanishingly rare,” but that’s not the same as saying no possible evidence could exist to prove or disprove the claims. In fact, the Author of Passage B believes that such evidence could exist, it’s just rare!

  5. E
    The author of passage Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) (Lines 53-59) The Author of Passage B criticizes the arguments of evolutionary psychologists who explain behavior through the intentions of genes to propagate themselves, which is what the Author of Passage A does in Paragraph 2. How does he criticize those arguments? By stating that they rely on the assumption that the explanation they put forward is the only viable explanation when, in reality, there are “all sorts of interests that would explain any given behavior.” In pointing out this flaw/assumption of the type of argument made in Passage A, the Author of Passage B is undermining it by suggesting it relies on questionable reasoning, as this answer choice states.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 3%
  2. B 4%
  3. C 4%
  4. D 20%
  5. E Credited 69%

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