#20 - All orchid species that are pollinated solely by

[jw190]

Hello Everyone,

In recently going over PT A from the Superprep book, I'm very confused on two answer choices from question 20 (orchid species). I originally picked D, the correct answer. But looking back, choice B seems almost as good. Even the Superprep books seems to acknowledge B as a possible choice in their explanation of why D is right. Anyway, here's my reasoning:

The author basically makes a mistaken reversal. The author thinks that just because species of orchids pollinated solely by insects must have features that attract insects, a related orchid species that has features that attract insects must be an orchid species pollinated solely by insects.

Choice B seems to be an accurate description of the flaw in that if the author incorrectly assumed that the only distinguishing feature between orchid species is features that attract insects, the author is able to make the incorrect conclusion that the features alone are sufficient to know a species is pollinated solely by insects. In other words, if the author incorrectly thought the only difference between orchid species was the features that attract insects, he could conclude (albeit incorrectly) that if the orchid species had those features, it must be pollinated solely by insects. He does make this conclusion. Right?

Thanks for any thoughts / help!

[David Boyle]

Hello Everyone,

In recently going over PT A from the Superprep book, I'm very confused on two answer choices from question 20 (orchid species). I originally picked D, the correct answer. But looking back, choice B seems almost as good. Even the Superprep books seems to acknowledge B as a possible choice in their explanation of why D is right. Anyway, here's my reasoning:

The author basically makes a mistaken reversal. The author thinks that just because species of orchids pollinated solely by insects must have features that attract insects, a related orchid species that has features that attract insects must be an orchid species pollinated solely by insects.

Choice B seems to be an accurate description of the flaw in that if the author incorrectly assumed that the only distinguishing feature between orchid species is features that attract insects, the author is able to make the incorrect conclusion that the features alone are sufficient to know a species is pollinated solely by insects. In other words, if the author incorrectly thought the only difference between orchid species was the features that attract insects, he could conclude (albeit incorrectly) that if the orchid species had those features, it must be pollinated solely by insects. He does make this conclusion. Right?

Thanks for any thoughts / help!

Hello jw190,

There is tricky wording in the stimulus and answer choices. Maybe you could make a case for answer B. However, try this scenario: Let's say that in addition to everything in the stimulus, we now declare that orchids pollinated only by insects have purple polka dots, and those not pollinated only by insects have green polka dots. That seems to hurt answer B, since there are now at least two differences between the two types of orchids: insect-attracting features, and polka-dot color.
Answer D is better, since it doesn't have the problem just mentioned.

Hope this helps,
David

[jw190]

Hmm I never thought of it that way. Definitely helps clear it up. Thanks for the reply!