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"Flight-Initiation Distance" (FID) is the distance at which birds flee from an approaching human. Birds adjust their FIDs in relation to a range of factors, including body mass, encounter rates with stimuli, and aspects of the stimulus such as starting distance (the distance at which a human approach begins), stimulus type (e.g., vehicle or walker), proximity to refuge, directness and speed of approach. The ability to discriminate between stimuli within species demonstrates that cognition is involved in the specifics of bird escape, and the substantial cognitive ability of at least some birds has recently been highlighted. Accurate judgment of risk, and appropriate mediation of response, is likely to be critical for the survival of many birds that encounter potentially threatening stimuli such as humans in increasing numbers and places. The "cognitive buffer" hypothesis suggests larger-brained birds will be better able to adapt to novel environmental conditions, such as those created by anthropogenic landscape change. In theory, these birds may be able to more accurately judge risk when presented with a stimulus, or be able to learn (habituate or sensitize) to adjust responses appropriately based on their previous experience. If so, one would predict that there would be a negative association between FID and brain size within and across species.
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The primary purpose of the passage is to
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Which of the following statements, if true, would confirm the prediction made in the final sentence of the passage? (Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.)
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The passage suggests that birds with an invariably long FID are
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Due to the importance they accorded roads, railways, rivers, and bridges, the French Impressionist painters were able to create a new iconography of landscape for the industrial age. Most contemporaries saw nothing in these paintings but trivial subjects and retained only the visual shock of the Impressionists' completely new technique and style. The Impressionist canvases were, however, much more complex than their apparent simplicity indicated: Impressionist landscapes balanced traditional images of France with elements representing industrial progress and thereby introduced modernity into painting. While retaining a part of the heritage they had received from their artistic predecessors, who had painted virgin forests and quaint old mills and farms, the Impressionists did not hesitate to place these traditional motifs next to factories and other signs of modernity in order to give as complete a vision as possible of their land. In their own way they were helping to celebrate the reconstruction of France that followed the Franco-Prussian War.
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Which of the following does the passage imply about the nineteenth-century reaction to French Impressionist landscape paintings?
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The passage suggests which of the following about French Impressionist painters of landscapes?(Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.)
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In the context in which it appears "retained" most nearly means
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The meteorite Monahans 1998 is an ordinary chondrite, a class of meteorites that astronomers have believed contain little or no water. But Monahans 1998 contains water locked inside salt crystals that date from the solar system's formation. The water is presumed to be of the same vintage-the first time that water of primordial origin has been detected. The water could have come from a water- rich comet that plowed into the meteorite's parent asteroid after its formation. But if the water was incorporated into the asteroid as it first coalesced, scientists may have to revise their thinking about conditions at the solar system's formation under which chondrites formed. To carry a concentrated salt solution today, Monahans 1998 must have once been in contact with several times more water than what now remains.
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The passage mentions the concentration of the salt solution in Monahans 1998 primarily in order to
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Which of the following can be inferred about the explanation offered in the highlighted sentence?
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From a purely evolutionary standpoint, pet keeping is an anomalous activity. It is easy to explain, for example, why people keep chickens, pigs, or sheep: these animals are worth at least their own weight in eggs, meat, hide, or fiber. But what could possibly be the adaptive value of keeping Siamese cats or miniature schnauzers? A common response to this evolutionary puzzle, and one that keeps being regurgitated in the literature, is the idea that pets are simply social parasites who have perfected the art of releasing and exploiting our innate parental instincts-called "cute response." Parallels are sometimes drawn with the phenomenon of brood parasitism in birds, in which the parasite' s nestling seems to exaggerate many of the care-soliciting aspects of the host' s, thus insuring that it is fed assiduously to the detriment of its foster parents and siblings. The superficially infantile appearance of some lapdogs lends support to this idea, but it should be emphasized that a key difference between people and songbirds is that the latter are presumably unaware that they are feeding and caring for a nonconspecific intruder. People may indeed find puppies or pug dogs cute, but they are certainly never in any doubt concerning their true provenance.
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The author mentions the "infantile appearance of some lapdogs" primarily in order to
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The author mentions a "key difference" primarily in order to
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It can be inferred that the author would be most likely to agree with which of the following claims about pet keeping?
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A recent study shows that farmers have a 40 percent lower risk of developing various common forms of cancer than people in the general population do. Farmers are more active than most people are, but even taking this into account, farmers had a significantly lower cancer risk. Therefore, it is likely that some substances that farmers are typically exposed to in the course of their work lower the risk of developing these forms of cancer.
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Which of the following, if discovered to be true, would cast the most serious doubt on the argument?
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According to the passage, which of the following statements about tea consumption in India is true?
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It can be inferred from the passage that the Tea Cess Committee reorganized as the Indian Tea Market Expansion Board in order to
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