PrepTest 147

Incorrect. The macaques only imitated 2/4 of what they saw, so this answer is contradicted by the stimulus.

Incorrect. While the stimulus does suggest that baby macaques don't imitate hand gestures, that's not enough to establish that they can't or, even if they can't, that it's because they lack control of those muscles. They might be unable to do so for another reason.

Incorrect. The reasons behind the interactions aren't specifically discussed or hinted at, so while it could be for entertainment, it could also be, say, to see if they're hungry.

Incorrect. Without a statement that baby macaques will only mimic animals they believe to be the same species as them, this answer is unsupported. It'd be hard to get inside those baby macaque's heads!

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
Study Ð Scientists interacted with baby macaque monkeys
Results Ð They would mimic lip smacking and sticking out tongues, but they wouldn't mimic opening/closing mouths and hand gestures
Additional info Ð Adult macaques only use the former 2 (the ones mimicked) when interacting with baby macaques

Answer Anticipation:
The big connection here is that the actions that the baby macaques mimicked from the scientists were also the ones that the adult macaques used to interact with the babies. While it's hard to anticipate the direction the correct answer will go with this overlap, it's likely to feature in the correct answer.

Answer Explanation:
The scientists tested out a variety of gestures, and the only ones that the baby macaques imitated were the ones that adult macaques also used when interacting with them. While that doesn't prove this is true for all gestures, it provides evidence for it, and that's enough for this Most Strongly Supported question.

Key Takeaway:
Must Be True questions that ask you to find an answer that's "most strongly supported" don't need an answer that's 100% certain based on the stimulus. Be sure you don't take this too far and pick an answer that doesn't have much support at all, but don't rule something out that aligns with the information provided but isn't airtight.