Reading comp PrepTest 134 · Section 4 · Question 19

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

It can be inferred Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

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

Question Type

Science

Strategy Overview

Identify the assumption as highlighted by the Author of Passage B, then find an answer reflecting it

Answer Anticipation

Let’s talk about this question stem. It’s asking about what the Author of Passage B would say is an assumption made by arguments “like [those] made in Passage A.” First, those arguments were the ones of evolutionary psychologists, so we should frame it that way. Second, asking for an assumption made in an argument is a Strengthen with Necessary Premise question stem, so we should view it through that lens. However, it’s also framing it as an assumption that can be inferred from what the Author of Passage B says, so it’s got a Must be True flair to it - he should specify it in some way in the passage.Since we’re looking for an assumption that the Author of Passage B would point out in an argument made by the evolutionary psychologists, and Passage B provided us with a description of the flawed logic used by the evolutionary psychologists in Paragraph 3, that’s where we should look.There, we see him claiming that the evolutionary psychologists pick one explanation for behavior when there are “all sorts of interests” that would explain it (Lines 54-56). So the evolutionary psychologists claim that behavior is explained by the desire of genes to propagate themselves, when in reality that behavior could have another explanation - such as an interest in the behavior itself (e.g., taking care of your kids). Why do they do this? Because it “appear[s] persuasive” since that motivating factor does explain the behavior (Lines 43-44).So let’s find an answer stating that the assumption is that just because an explanation can explain certain behavior that it is the true explanation of the behavior.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Most of the physical Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) This answer is about physical features, not behavior, so we can rule it out - the assumptions presented in Passage B don’t apply.

  2. B
    Any action performed by Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 1-7) This is an unbelievably tempting answer, and you’d be in good company if you selected it. After all, Passage B doesn’t think that genes are orchestrating many behaviors, and Passage A says that they are, right? In general, yes, but this answer is too extreme in saying that the Author of Passage B believes that the arguments made by evolutionary psychologists believe that “[a]ny action” performed by early humans was “necessarily orchestrated” by their genes. While the first sentence of Passage A says that evolutionary psychology has taught us to examine “a given type” of human behavior through the lens of how it contributes to the proliferation of genetic material, the passage doesn’t say that this can be answered for every action. It’s possible that there are some actions that have no impact on the proliferation of genes, or they actively harm that proliferation, and evolutionary psychologists would admit that after they’d analyze the actions for evolutionary advantages. So this answer is too strong to represent an assumption made by the evolutionary psychologists, and we can rule it out.

  3. C
    To explain a type Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    (C) (Lines 47-53; Lines 56-59) The Author of Passage B brings up an apparently “persuasive” argument made by evolutionary psychologists - that the way our species reproduces favors monogamous families, and so this is evidence that this behavior is explained by our interest in propagating our genes. However, he then asks if this is “right,” before saying that it’s not necessarily, as it’s not enough to show that “a particular interest explains a particular behavior” but rather one must show “that the behavior would be reasonable only if one had that interest.” So the Author of Passage B believes that evolutionary psychologists assume it’s sufficient to show that the desire to pass on genes can explain a behavior to say that it’s the explanation, when in reality it must be shown that it’s the only explanation for that behavior. This answer correctly describes the flaw that the Author in Passage B points out, so it’s the correct answer.

  4. D
    Evolutionary psychology can be Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Animal behavior is out of scope of the arguments in the passage.

  5. E
    Most early human behaviors Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Both passages focus on behavior that enhanced success, not ones that hindered reproductive success, so this answer is out of scope.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 4%
  2. B 57%
  3. C Credited 34%
  4. D 3%
  5. E 1%

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