Q5 - Ticks attach themselves to host animals

[ohthatpatrick]

QUESTION TYPE:
Inference (must be true)

READ FOR:
ideas that can be combined (pay attention to Conditional, Causal, Quantitative, or Comparative wording).

STIMULUS ANALYSIS:

- The first sentence is a Conditional claim (really a bi-conditional)
EATEN ALL THEY CAN <------> DROP OFF HOST

- The second sentence allows us to apply that conditional to a specific fact.

"Between noon and sunset, these deer ticks drop off their hosts"
thus
"Between noon and sunset, these deer ticks have eaten all they can"

So we know that between 12pm and sunset, the deer ticks attached to these white footed mice have eaten all they can.

The last sentence is also conditional (or just think of it as extreme, if that's easier).

We KNOW that
- white-footed mice spend all their daytime hours in their underground nests
+
- the deer ticks attached to these white footed mice drop off their hosts during the daytime hours of 12pm to sunset
--------------------------------------
INFER: when the deer ticks drop off the white footed mice, between 12pm and sunset, the setting is the white footed mice's underground nests.

That's (C).

INCORRECT ANSWERS
(A) We were told nothing about when deer ticks attach, only when they drop off.
(B) This contradicts the rule of the second sentence.
(D) We know nothing about whether the mice are aware of the ticks.
(E) We know nothing about whether there is a "tick season" or if it's year round.

[EmaD316]

I chose D, that the mice are not aware of the ticks, because the stimulus stated that the mice are nocturnal and the deer ticks feed off of them between noon and sunset. I assumed that since the mice are nocturnal, they would be sleeping during the hours that the deer ticks are on them. Is this too much of a leap and, consequently, why I was incorrect?