Assumption Question

sibbineni · Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:51 pm Post subject: Assumption Question

The energy an animal must expend to move uphill is proportional to its body weight,whereas the animal's energy output available to perform this task is proportional to its surface area. this is the reason that small animals, like squirrels, can run up a tree trunk almost as fast as they can move on the level ground, whereas large animals tend to slow down when they are moving uphill

which one of the following is an assumption on which the explanation above depends

A) The amount of energy needed to move uphill is no greater for large scale animals than it is for small animals

B) small animals can move more rapidly than large animals can

C)the ratio of surface area to body weight is smaller in large animals than it is in small animals

D)there is little variation in the ratio of energy output to body weight among animals

E) the amount of energy needed to run at a given speed is proportional to the surface area of the running animal

i was struck with B and C .Can Somebody explain this

malnv · Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 11:28 pm Post subject:

I will go with C.

C states that Smaller animals have larger surface area in proportion with its weight. Therefore they 1. need less energy moving upwards , and at the same time 2. crawl fast on level ground (due to their increase surface area).

This is an assumption in the argument. Because the author restricts possibility of larger animals with similar ratio (Dinosaur ?)..