QUESTION TEXT: The number of codfish in the North…
QUESTION TYPE: Weaken
CONCLUSION: It’s not likely that seals caused the cod population to decline.
REASONING: Even though there are more seals, cod are a small part of the seal’s diet.
ANALYSIS: The cod are unimportant to seals, but seals could be very important to cod.
I’ll use a parallel example. It’s well established that humans devastated the cod population. Yet they’re only a small part of our diet. It’s possible to overeat an animal to near extinction, even if that animal is only a small part of our diet.
So the seals could have eaten too many cod, even if the seals also ate many other animals.
The correct answer takes a different approach. It shows that seals have been eating the fish that cod feed on. So maybe the cod have nothing to eat and they starve to death.
___________
- We have no idea if seals get in the way of fishing. The stimulus didn’t even mention fishing.
- Pollution? We have no idea whether pollution is bad for cod or for seals; pollution is never mentioned.
- This shows that seals often live apart from cod. This slightly strengthens the argument.
- CORRECT. This shows that seals could be eating the cod’s food. So the seals are indirectly starving the cod.
- This strengthens the argument, by showing that seals didn’t start the cod population’s decline.
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