hard · LSAT Reading Comprehension
A sudden rise in a species' population size is ordinarily explained either by a drop in predation pressure or by an increase in available food supply. When researchers observed such a rise among a population of alpine marmots, they found predation rates unchanged from previous decades, and forage abundance likewise stable. The researchers instead propose that a change in the marmots' own hibernation timing, allowing an additional several weeks of foraging before winter, is responsible for the population increase. They caution, however, that this explanation has so far been tested at only one site, and that confirming it at additional sites is necessary before it can be accepted as general.
Which one of the following most accurately describes the organization of the passage?
- Two standard explanations are ruled out, a third is proposed, and its acceptance is qualified pending confirmation.
- Two standard explanations are ruled out by evidence, and a third is proposed and endorsed as fully established across the species' entire range.
- A single standard explanation is confirmed by new evidence, and a minor refinement to its scope is then suggested.
- Three competing explanations are presented with equal supporting evidence, and the passage declines to favor any one.
- A new phenomenon is described, and several untested explanations are catalogued without favoring any single one.
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