danielalfino Wrote:On 25, I am very confused because there is no way to prove answer choice D correct. The passage says, "Cyclamen mites lay three eggs per day over four or five days of their reproductive life span; Typhlodromus lay two or three eggs per day for eight to ten days." Comparing these rates would be like comparing apples to oranges, no? If the passage had used a per day ratio or had used a total value, then we compare them; however, the fact that it precisely did not led me to believe that it was the trap answer. Thus I went with C, as it was the only other choice I had not already eliminated.
giladedelman Wrote:Let's move on to Q25.
On this one, don't get too bogged down in the numbers. We can look to the structure of the paragraph to find the answer. The question is basically asking, why does the author go into the whole egg-laying explanation? What claim is he or she trying to justify? Well, if we look at the beginning of paragraph two, we see it: "[Big T's] population can increase as rapidly as that of its prey." The discussion of parthenogenesis that follows is just serving to support this claim.
(D) is correct. It identifies the claim that Big T can reproduce as quickly as cyclamen mites. Don't worry whether you think the math makes sense; what we care about is the point the author is trying to make.
(A) is out of scope. The author is only talking about these two specific species.
(B) seems true, but it's not the author's main claim here; it's just a detail.
(C) is tempting, but be careful: the synchrony thing is actually discussed later, in regards to seasonal fluctuations in the mite populations. Here, the issue is reproductive rates, not timing.
(E) is out of scope. We don't learn anything about Big T's relative egg-laying rates in the presence or absence of cyclamen mites.
Does that answer your questions? Let me know if there's anything still bothering you about this passage.