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#81362
Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (C).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!
 avengingangel
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#30939
Hi! I was choosing between A & C, and ultimately chose C (woo!). But would like to confirm why A is not correct - when I did the assumption negation technique, the one thing that didn't work out was the "unusually" high rates... the rates don't necessarily have to be unusually high.. just high(ish). But actually, now as I'm typing this / reviewing the question, I think that would have needed to be high rates of diversity, anyway. Right? THanks!
 David Boyle
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#31449
avengingangel wrote:Hi! I was choosing between A & C, and ultimately chose C (woo!). But would like to confirm why A is not correct - when I did the assumption negation technique, the one thing that didn't work out was the "unusually" high rates... the rates don't necessarily have to be unusually high.. just high(ish). But actually, now as I'm typing this / reviewing the question, I think that would have needed to be high rates of diversity, anyway. Right? THanks!

Hello avengingangel,

Saying that both the sea and the forest have high speciation, as answer A says, sort of repeats what the passage already implies. (Or close: as you note, "diversity" is not exactly the same as "speciation". Which weakens A even more; perhaps you could somehow have diversity without high rate of speciation?) We are more interested in the underlying reason, the hidden premise--which is what an assumption is supposed to be, hidden. "Sanders argued that the Amazon tropical rain forest is analogous to the deep sea: because the rain forest has a stable climate, extinction should be rare." implies that the deep sea hasn't had big changes, but it doesn't say it outright. Answer C says it outright, so is right.

Hope this helps,
David
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 mab9178
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#99129
Is it wrong to eliminate A, because of the word "unusually"?

The first paragraph states that it is "high levels of species diversity," but says nothing about "unusually high."

Also, concerning the parenthetical comment, to me, the phrases "species diversity" and "speciation" in the paragraph/passage seem to mean the same.

Am I oversimplifying the reason ("unusually") for eliminating A and moving on?

C becomes clearly the answer on its own merits lines 6-10, and 14-17. But I never thought A was a contender, and my concern is whether I am missing something by oversimplifying or exaggerating the role the word "unusually" is playing?

Thank you
 Adam Tyson
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#99251
I do think that "unusually" is a problem with answer A, but I also agree with David's point earlier in this thread that "speciation" and "diversity" are not the same thing. There may be an unusual amount of diversity, but that does not require an unusual amount of speciation. It just means that as species divide and form distinct new species, they have fewer extinctions than occur in other places.

Put another way, maybe the same level of speciation happens everywhere - species divide and become distinct - but in most other places more of those new, distinct species die out than happens in the deep ocean or the Amazon.

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