Q12 - Some species are called

[pokermax3]

Can someone post an explanation to this please?

[giladedelman]

Certainly!

This is an "identify the conclusion" question. Our job here is to figure out what the conclusion is, and then pick the answer that restates/rephrases it.

This argument has the classic form for this question type. We get some background information where some group of people are described as thinking something, in this case, environmentalists paying increasing attention to indicator species. Then, we get a "but" or "however" or, as in this case, "yet," followed by the conclusion: it would be a bad idea to always attribute the loss of a population to pollution. Then, we get the premises supporting that conclusion: population declines just as often result from natural evolution, and we need to be aware of this fact.

So the conclusion is that idea following "yet," which is rephrased in answer (B). So (B) is our answer.

(A) is out because the argument never says environmentalists "overreact."

(C) is out because the argument never says that anything environmentalists do is problematic; it just says they would be misguided if they made a certain interpretation.

(D) is kind of like the premise, but the "should not be resisted" actually never comes up in the argument.

(E) twists around what the argument says: pollution is not part of nature's status quo.

Does that clear this up for you?

[erikwoodward10]

In reference to answer choice C, aren't "problematic" and "misguided" essentially the same thing?

[pewals13]

Even if you make that concession (which I think is a big one), the answer choice is still wrong.

Conclusion: "...yet environmentalists would be misguided if they attributed the loss of a population to pollution in all cases."

Answer choice (C) states that the use of indicator species to track the effects pollution is often problematic (misguided for the purposes of this analysis).

The conclusion says that such use would be misguided if environmentalists attributed every loss of an indicator species to pollution. We have no evidence that environmentalists have done so.