QUESTION TEXT: In 1988, a significant percentage of seals…
QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen
CONCLUSION: Pollutants caused Baltic seals to die at a higher rate from viruses than did Scottish seals.
REASONING: Pollution can affect seals’ ability to fight viruses.
ANALYSIS: There are a million and one other reasons the seals could have died. The right answer will help eliminate alternate causes.
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- This adds nothing. Maybe the Baltic seals that died were also old and unhealthy.
- This makes the situation more confusing. Scottish seals faced a stronger virus, but survived.
- Slight fluctuations? Even if there were large fluctuations, I’m not sure what that would prove. But slight fluctuations are pretty useless: we should expect some minor fluctuations.
- This hurts the argument. Different pollutants might have different effects. So even though the Scottish seals have fewer pollutants, they might be worse off if their pollutants are stronger.
- CORRECT. Presumably, pollution makes all marine species more vulnerable to infections. So if other species in the Baltic also had a higher death rate, then maybe pollution was the cause.
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