Text 1
\nIn 2007, a team led by Alice Storey analyzed a chicken bone found in El Arenal, Chile, dating it to 1321–1407 CE—over a century before Europeans invaded the region, bringing their own chickens. Storey also found that the El Arenal chicken shared a unique genetic mutation with the ancient chicken breeds of the Polynesian Islands in the Pacific. Thus, Polynesian peoples, not later Europeans, probably first introduced chickens to South America.
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Text 2
\nAn Australian research team weakened the case for a Polynesian origin for the El Arenal chicken by confirming that the mutation identified by Storey has occurred in breeds from around the world. More recently, though, a team led by Agusto Luzuriaga-Neira found that South American chicken breeds and Polynesian breeds share other genetic markers that European breeds lack. Thus, the preponderance of evidence now favors a Polynesian origin.
","stem_html":"Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined claim in Text 1?
","rationale_html":"Choice D is the best answer because it accurately describes how the author of Text 2 would most likely respond to the underlined claim in Text 1. Text 1 indicates that Storey found a genetic mutation in South American chickens from before the European invasion and in Polynesian chickens, which implies that chickens were first brought to South America by Polynesian people. Text 2 explains that the genetic mutation Storey found is in chickens from all over the world, thus undercutting the mutation as evidence of a Polynesian origin. However, Text 2 goes on to say “[m]ore recently” Luzuriaga-Neira and colleagues found multiple genetic markers shared by South American and Polynesian chickens but “that European breeds lack,” which strongly suggests a Polynesian origin for the South American chickens. This indicates that the author of Text 2 believes Luzuriaga-Neira’s evidence for a Polynesian origin is compelling while Storey’s evidence has been undermined. Thus, the author of Text 2 would most likely agree with the underlined statement and believes Luzuriaga-Neira and colleagues’ evidence for the statement is stronger than Storey’s evidence is.
Choice A is incorrect because both texts indicate that chickens were introduced to South America before the arrival of Europeans. Text 1 states that the El Arenal chicken bone dates from “1321–1407 CE—over a century before Europeans invaded the region” and concludes that these chickens were likely brought to South America by Polynesians. While Text 2 is not as explicit about the time period as Text 1 is, nothing in Text 2 undermines the timing of events ascribed to Storey’s account in Text 1. Choice B is incorrect because both texts agree that chickens were first brought to South America by Polynesian peoples (the underlined claim), and nothing in Text 2 suggests that this claim is in any way deficient because the possibility that animals could have been transferred from South America to Polynesia was not explicitly addressed. Choice C is incorrect because the criticism that Text 2 raises about the ideas in Text 1 is specifically about whether the single genetic mutation cited by Storey in fact supports the idea of a Polynesian origin for South American chickens. There is nothing in Text 2 to suggest that the underlined sentence (Storey’s conclusion) is deficient because it is based on an assumption about the genetic uniformity of European chickens.
","correct_answer":["D"],"has_media":false,"has_mathml":false,"has_table":false,"source_created_at":"2023-08-02T20:25:59.312000+00:00","source_updated_at":"2023-08-02T20:25:59.312000+00:00","options":[{"label":"A","content_html":"By broadly agreeing with the claim but objecting that the timeline it presupposes conflicts with the findings of the genetic analysis conducted by Storey’s team
","ord":0},{"label":"B","content_html":"By faulting the claim for implying that domestic animals couldn’t have been transferred from South America to the Polynesian Islands as well
","ord":1},{"label":"C","content_html":"By critiquing the claim for being based on an assumption that before the European invasion of South America, the chickens of Europe were genetically uniform
","ord":2},{"label":"D","content_html":"By noting that while the claim is persuasive, the findings of Luzuriaga-Neira’s team provide stronger evidence for it than the findings of the genetic analysis conducted by Storey do
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