Reading comp PrepTest 153 · Section 4 · Question 4

Passage

Questions 1-7  .       Forests are among the world's most valuable  . resources, both in a narrowly economic sense and in Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Science

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • Background on forests, and an outline of the rest of the argument
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Forests - ecologically and economically "most" valuable
    • To make policy decisions on forest preservation, need to know pros/cons, especially on claims of :
      • Oxygen-renewing effects
      • Biodiversity preservation
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • Analysis of first claim - oxygen-renewing effects
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Claim - The Amazon keeps CO2 down and oxygen up
    • Reality - Forests are oxygen-neutral
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Analysis of second claim - biodiversity preservation
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Claim - Preserving biodiversity requires preserving forests
    • Scientists - Preserving it might lead to new basic materials/medicines
    • Alternatively, there's a moral imperative to do so
Paragraph 4
  • Paragraph note
    • Analysis of commercial plantations effects on biodiversity
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Deforestation isn't happening as much as thought
    • Plantations have critics, and they do have less biodiversity (concession), but they allow for more biodiversity elsewhere
    • They also make up only 3% of forests
Main Point:
Two claims about forest preservation need to be scrutinized before good forest-preservation policy decisions can be made.

Key Lines:
7-15 - Main point and outline of the rest of the passage/argument
24-26 - View on first topic raised in lines 7-15
30-33 - View on second topic raised in lines 7-15
35-39 - More on second topic raised in lines 7-15
41-44 - Point of last paragraph, continuing discussion of second topic from the third paragraph

Meta-Structure:
More research is needed. The Author here calls out what information needs to be scrutinized in order to allow for good policy decisions. However, she never speaks to what those policy decisions should be, or how the information should inform the policy decisions, so there's no resolution or suggestion as to the specifics there!

Last Thoughts:
It's important to note in this passage that the Author is much more middle-of-the-road overall than she is on individual elements. The main point here is that certain claims need to be scrutinized in order to make smart decisions about forest preservation policy. However, she never gives any hint as to what those policies should be. But she does offer opinions on the two claims that need to be scrutinized.

For the first claim about the oxygen-renewing capabilities of forests, she clearly doesn't agree that that's a benefit (lines 25-26). For the second claim about biodiversity, it's less clear, as she brings up two reasons to believe that biodiversity should be preserved, but it's never framed as her opinion—it's what "scientists believe" or what "one could agree with."

So the Author here does have some opinions, but overall, she's much more interested in exploring what needs to be explored rather than coming to a definitive conclusion on those topics.

Question prompt

The stated relationship between 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

Answer choices

  1. A
    Pay increases in a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. This answer notes that pay increases are "partially" eroded through inflation "if" something occurs. As such, it's not parallel to the passage where oxygen production and consumption were completely balanced out.
  2. B
    Endangered species of plants Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. This answer might be something scientists do to preserve endangered plants, but there's no "net neutral" relationship as in the situation asked about in the question stem. This choice is trying to get you to answer a different question!
  3. C
    Energy is expended in Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. In this answer, selling the crops "more than" covers the cost of growing the crops, so there's no balance as there was in the stimulus.
  4. D
    An increase in the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. This answer is about increases in two separate areas, so there is no balancing out the increases noted.
  5. E
    Water evaporates from the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Parallel Reasoning

    Strategy Overview:
    Head back to the section in question, understand the situation, and come up with an abstraction/generalization that we can use to analyze the answers

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    Much like a Parallel Reasoning question in LR, we're going to need to identify elements/relationships in the situation being asked about that will help us analyze the answers.

    Immediately heading back to lines 22-26, we can see that trees produce oxygen by photosynthesis, but that they then consume the same amount when they decompose, resulting in no overall change to oxygen levels for a tree if you look at it throughout its lifetime.

    So we should similarly look for an answer that presents something that is "net neutral" when analyzed over the entirety of its existence.

    Answer Explanation:
    This answer establishes that water is lost from the ground during hot weather, but it is then returned to the ground as rain or snow. That's a net neutral change of water from the ground (or the air, depending on how you look at it!), so it's parallel to the situation in the stimulus.

    Key Takeaway:
    While Parallel Reasoning questions in RC share a lot in common with their counterparts in LR, there's one big difference—you're almost certainly not going to get conditional statements in RC! Instead, you need to identify the other relevant logical elements in the situation being asked about. Here, that meant homing in on the comparison—the net neutral nature of what was going on.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 18%
  2. B 2%
  3. C 5%
  4. D 2%
  5. E Credited 73%

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