Reading comp PrepTest 154 · Section 3 · Question 3

Incorrect. Hunting and gathering are two different means of getting resources—one doesn't enable the other.

Correct. Question Type:
Parallel Reasoning

Strategy Overview:
Review the noted relationship and then create a generalization that can be used to analyze the answers

Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
Looking at our notations, we can see that this is squarely in Paragraph 2. There, it was noted that the large population raised a question, as it was ""extraordinary"" (Line 22) for the time because normal ""crop cultivation"" would allow for only a ""low population density"" (Lines 24-27). There also wasn't ""transport[ation]"" or ""sto[age]"" to hold grain (Lines 28-31).

GZ, on the other hand, was able to maintain such a large population with it's ""alternative agricultural system"" that focused on cattle.

So the cattle economy was what allowed GZ to have such a large population. Let's find an answer that brings up a similar pair where one thing enables another.

Answer Explanation:
Irrigation enables farming in the desert, much as GZ's cattle economy enabled their large population. The relationship between these two is analogous to the one between the elements in the question, so this is the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
Most Parallel Reasoning questions in RC won't have conditional logic or similar elements that allow for a more formal matching up between the passage and the answer. Instead, you'll need to generalize the relationship. It can also be helpful to match up the elements, making sure that every part of the relationship in the passage has an analogous part in the answer!

Incorrect. Accounting and marketing are two different functions of a company—neither enables the other.

Incorrect. This answer can be tempting! However, sports stadiums don't enable athletic contests—you can play a game of kickball in a random field. And athletic contests don't enable stadiums. So this answer isn't analogous to the situation in the passage.

Incorrect. This answer arguably fits the generalized anticipation we formed—after all, the individual stones do enable a stone wall to be made! However, this pair has an element to the relationship that isn't present in the one in the passage. Namely, the stone wall is made up of individual stones, but the large population of GZ wasn't made up of cattle. Since this answer features a relationship not present in the passage, it's incorrect.