LR Question 12 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Gene splicing can give rise to new varieties of farm animals that…
QUESTION TYPE: Most Strongly Supported
FACTS:
- Gene splicing can create farm animals we don’t fully understand.
- We can use gene splicing to create animals with good genes.
- But the animals might also get bad genes. The bad genes would be subtle and we wouldn’t notice.
ANALYSIS: We can’t combine these facts. But they support the idea that there are pros and cons to gene splicing and we should be careful how we use it.
___________
- This stimulus only supports the idea that at least some toxin production is genetically controlled.
- CORRECT. There are advantages to gene splicing, but there are also disadvantages. And it is hard to detect the disadvantages.
- Actually gene splicing is effective at producing new varieties of animals. It’s just that these varieties might come with side effects and unforeseen consequences.
- We only know that some varieties might develop cancer. This statement is way too strong.
- We have no idea. Maybe we’ll never overcome the unforeseen consequences of gene splicing.
More Resources for Most Strongly Supported Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Most Strongly Supported questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers most strongly supported questions.
When I was reading the answers for this question to rule out, I initially ruled out answer choice B quickly, because the stimulus did not mention anything we SHOULD do. I know for myself, after reading it, yeah that makes sense we absolutely should use gene splicing cautiously. However, the stimulus did not explicitly say anything about what should be done.
Then once I went over all of the other answer choices, I ruled them out as well for not being supported by the passage. Then B stood out as being the most plausible answer choice. I wrote this to say that even though I chose B as my answer and that it was correct, I still chose it reluctantly.