Q13

[skapur777]

How is the answer E? There is nothing in the paragraph to suggest that biologists no longer believe that all genes are inherited vertically. They say at the end that "such horizontal transmission may well be the mechanism that has eluded biologists" but never says that ANY biologists accept it at all, nevertheless many. Very confused...I thought the answer was C.

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

you're so close! You're correct that "many" is important. The word many indicates "at least some." And it is true that many biologists no longer believe that "all genes are inherited vertically." In lines 51-58 the passage says that the evidence appears to show that some genes can be transmitted horizontally. If some genes are transmitted horizontally, then it's not true that all genes are transmitted vertically.

I know you're focused on the term "many biologists." Remember that this is actually a very weak way of referring to biologists. Two biologists no longer holding this view would be enough. And on line 57, the passage implies that these biologists have accepted the claim that some genes are transmitted horizontally.

(A) is on the wrong side of the argument. It appears that more biologists may be inclined to hold this belief.
(B) is on the wrong side of the argument. It appears that more biologists may be inclined to hold this belief.
(C) is not something biologists previously believed. The question is about what biologists "no longer" believe.
(D) is not mentioned in the passage. We know that some biologists believe this claim to be true, but not whether any believe this claim to be false.

I hope that helps, and let me know if you still have further questions on this one!

[interestedintacos]

I had the same problem as Skapur. Many times I've been led astray in RC because you never know for sure what level of inference the test makers are looking for.

Here the right answer doesn't come from the text unless "many" can mean 1, but even that's an assumption because we'd have to assume the author is a biologist. Skapur is right that we never actually learn biologists no longer believe their old dogma. Even knowing that the old dogma is not true, like you pointed out mshermn, doesn't mean that biologists no longer believe it.

I guarantee that in another passage just like this the test makers could throw in a question with an incorrect answer that "biologists now believe their old dogma is wrong" just because there are facts out there the author is pointing out. Many times the precise positions of a person or group form the basis for a number of questions.

Nevertheless, I think even though the correct answer is a fairly big jump from the explicit text and not necessarily supported, the other chances are faulty for bigger reasons, and that's why I think we have to adopt E.

But it's frustrating that sometimes the test makers are looking for an inference that's actually explicitly supported by the text and other times they will accept as correct an inference that takes a big jump that someone making a precise reading wouldn't make.

This is how the question should read in my opinion: "Considering the evidence introduced in the passage, many biologists may no longer believe which one of the following?"

[interestedintacos]

By the way, I think choice A would actually be potentially correct if it weren't for a scope shift: Lamarck is saying an animal's use of an organ can affect the organ's development in offspring. Choice A says the use of an organ can affect its development. That's a big shift--not referring to offspring. Choice A would probably be accepted by all biologists--take the usage of muscles for instance; it's not at all the controversial issue we're examining here.

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Good point. Thanks for pointing that out!

While the evidence is now pointing to the fact that an animal's use or disuse of an organ may affect that organ's development in the animal's offspring, this is something that biologists have argued against traditionally, since they had no evidence to support this claim.

And you're correct that the scope shift you pointed out does make answer choice (A) something that biologists might actually agree with. I'd also point out that the way the question stem is phrased with the words "no longer" implies that we're looking for some position that has been altered during the course of the passage. And it doesn't appear that biologists are yet to change their position on this point.

[geverett]

Yea questions like these are always my achilles heel.

[rsmorale]

I'm still having trouble with this one.

The passage says this:

New evidence suggests:
Most are inherited vertically
Some, however, have been acquired horizontally.

So how does this infer that biologists previously believed that "All genes are inherited vertically"?

[timmydoeslsat]

I think the sentence starting at Line 48 and ending at Line 49 definitely gives us SOFT language. It states matter of factly "most are inherited vertically" but then for the horizontal group it states "some may"

The biologists already knew that genes were inherited to offspring, aka, vertically. So that was their previous belief.

[wgutx08]

All right, I'm glad I'm not alone in finding Q13 frustrating. And thanks to Taco for phrasing my mind. I really WANTED to pick E since it makes sense according to the passage. I was searching for ever for a line that would support E, but could not find it.

In case this happens in the real test, my question to the geeks here: since this is the first Q, where typically main point/purpose question would be, can we safely assume that the answer to the first question must be somewhat general and in accordance with the main gist of the passage, and would not be about some insignificant details?

thanks so much!

[ohthatpatrick]

To answer the last question, it's a pretty safe assumption that the first question will be big picture in nature, even if it doesn't happen to be a Main Point question. But, clearly, we're at the mercy of the question stem, so that tendency can be thrown out the window at a moment's notice if the first question is specific.

In terms of the overall conversation about this question, I just want to point out what I was using to answer this question: lines 6-12.

Here it says that biologists "have long held that inheritance of acquired characteristics never occurs". That is a paraphrase of "biologists used to believe that all genes are inherited vertically".

The following sentence sets the stage for the fact that biologists' long held belief was inaccurate.

While it's true that the passage never explicitly states that biologists have altered their belief in light of the numerous counterexamples alluded to in line 11, it's a VERY safe common sense inference to think that some scientists adjust their beliefs in accordance with observed facts.

And the language of the question stem, "suggests", allows us to go beyond what is explicitly stated (naturally, we don't want to go too far, so we're looking for the safest, smallest stretch of what we know).

Hope this helps.

[einuoa]

Adding in my two cents,
The question was confusing to me because it took me a while just to established what biologists did believe, and that was in lines 6-12,
that "environmentally induced adaptations seem plausible but inheritance of acquired characteristics never occurs," the acquired characteristic is the environmentally induced adaptations. So biologists at this point believe only in vertical acquisition, because they don't believe in horizontal or any other form, just in traditional inheritance of traits.

In lines 54-59, the passage says that horizontal transmission may well be the mechanism for inheritance of acquired characteristics that has long eluded biologists... ; and we can infer from that that it doesn't elude biologists anymore, and so biologists>many biologists, so it's inherently saying that all biologists now believe in horizontal transmission as well, and by default, they can't believe that all inheritance is vertical.

[cwang213]

I think I may have found a stronger line of reasoning for why (E) is correct. The passage suggests that new research indicates that there may be some examples of horizontal inheritance (lines 11-12). I think you can infer that the scientists (presumably biologists), at least one, who conducted this research believe in the research results.