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strenghthen question

by Veronica » Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:47 pm
Capuchin monkeys often rub their bodies with a certain type of millipede. Laboratory tests show that secretions from the bodies of these millipedes are rich in two chemicals that are potent mosquito repellents, and mosquitoes carry parasites that debilitate capuchins. Some scientists hypothesize that the monkeys rub their bodies with the millipedes because doing so helps protect them from mosquitoes.

Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the scientists' hypothesis?

A. A single millipede often gets passed around among several capuchins, all of whom rub their bodies with it
B. The 2 chemicals that repel mosquitoes also repel several other varieties of insects
C. The capuchins rarely rub their bodies with the millipedes except during the rainy season, when mosquito populations are at their peak.
D. Although the capuchins eat several species of insects, they do not eat the type of millipede they use to rub their bodies
E. The 2 insect-repelling chemicals in the sections of the millipedes are carcinogenic for humans but do not appear but do not appear to be carcinogenic for capuchins

I chose C, but answer key is E, please explain!
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by goyalsau » Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:43 am
Its like a big science question.
Millipede, Carcinogenic ..
I don't know Where Will this take us too.
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by gmatrix » Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:17 am
what's the source ?
the ans should be C.....no where in the stimulus there is any mention of secretions of millipedes being carcinogenic(cancer causing)......& no mention of humans so E is out of scope
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by lokesh r » Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:20 am
gmatrix wrote:what's the source ?
the ans should be C.....no where in the stimulus there is any mention of secretions of millipedes being carcinogenic(cancer causing)......& no mention of humans so E is out of scope
I completely agree with u...E looks to be irrelevant..i mean why do we even have check whether checmicals are carcinogenic to humans.

IMO C

Please confirm the answer.
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by arpita@gurome » Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:51 am
As pointed out by others C indeed seems to be the answer. Please ensure that you are doing quality questions (questions from trusted sources).

The answer is C since all the other choices are out of scope or plain irrelevant.

The reason I chose this question is, it can show us how to deconstruct a question and make it tougher. Let me explain:

Any question in CR can be made tough by tough stem, stimulus, answer choices or a combination thereof. For example in the above question, the stimulus is moderate, stem and answer choices are straight forward.

One approach of making this question tougher is by tweaking the answer choices.

Say we introduce a choice that says something to the effect that "one of the chemicals is known to kill some parasites"
This forces one to think is the above the right answer or is it choice C?

I would still go with C, but the question will take up that much more time to solve since the choices are closer.

For those who are wondering why still C? Well, first only one chemical kills and that too some parasites. It could be 1 out of 100 parasites it kills. C eliminates the problem since the mosquitos will be repelled and thus the monkeys will not come in contact with the parasites in the first place.

Active reading concept with prephrasing:
As soon as I completed reading the stimulus, I was thinking hmmm ..........what could happen in this question, and my mind was warning me .........beware if a choice tries to link eradication of parasites to millipedes pay attention to it, because the hypothesis is that the millipedes should repel mosquitos.........but as it turns out the answer choices were on a different track, still by the time I was reading the choices I felt "at home" with the question, this is the power of active reading.


Hope this digression was worth it!
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by ov25 » Mon Sep 27, 2010 9:04 am
I like C too.

for E, we need to assume that carcinogens for humans would act as mosquito repellants for capuchins...
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by g000fy » Mon Sep 27, 2010 9:26 am
Veronica wrote:Capuchin monkeys often rub their bodies with a certain type of millipede. Laboratory tests show that secretions from the bodies of these millipedes are rich in two chemicals that are potent mosquito repellents, and mosquitoes carry parasites that debilitate capuchins. Some scientists hypothesize that the monkeys rub their bodies with the millipedes because doing so helps protect them from mosquitoes.

Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the scientists' hypothesis?

A. A single millipede often gets passed around among several capuchins, all of whom rub their bodies with it
B. The 2 chemicals that repel mosquitoes also repel several other varieties of insects
C. The capuchins rarely rub their bodies with the millipedes except during the rainy season, when mosquito populations are at their peak.
D. Although the capuchins eat several species of insects, they do not eat the type of millipede they use to rub their bodies
E. The 2 insect-repelling chemicals in the sections of the millipedes are carcinogenic for humans but do not appear but do not appear to be carcinogenic for capuchins

I chose C, but answer key is E, please explain!
This looks familiar. I do remember the answer was C although I don't remember the source.
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by diebeatsthegmat » Tue Sep 28, 2010 12:05 am
Veronica wrote:Capuchin monkeys often rub their bodies with a certain type of millipede. Laboratory tests show that secretions from the bodies of these millipedes are rich in two chemicals that are potent mosquito repellents, and mosquitoes carry parasites that debilitate capuchins. Some scientists hypothesize that the monkeys rub their bodies with the millipedes because doing so helps protect them from mosquitoes.

Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the scientists' hypothesis?

A. A single millipede often gets passed around among several capuchins, all of whom rub their bodies with it
B. The 2 chemicals that repel mosquitoes also repel several other varieties of insects
C. The capuchins rarely rub their bodies with the millipedes except during the rainy season, when mosquito populations are at their peak.
D. Although the capuchins eat several species of insects, they do not eat the type of millipede they use to rub their bodies
E. The 2 insect-repelling chemicals in the sections of the millipedes are carcinogenic for humans but do not appear but do not appear to be carcinogenic for capuchins

I chose C, but answer key is E, please explain!
honey, you studied a wrong source when its answer is E....
the answer must be C
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