Explanation for Question 20 From the Writing Section on the 2020 March Sat
Now number 20, our best answer is going to be a, 2 because AI is the only answer choice that shows us some opposition to Gold's 3 procedure for getting to her conclusions. 4 And so for looking at Gold's procedure, we can kind of find it up 5 here. Um, she's looking to find the capacity for cognition or in other words, 6 how intelligent the Dodo bird is. 7 So they make a 3d model of the brain cavity, 8 and then they wanted to find the brain volume. 9 Right? So the key here is that she's looking at brain volume now in 10 for choice a is on topic because it talks about brain volume. 11 And it also shows opposition because it tells us why brain Val, 12 why brain volume is not a good measure of intelligence. 13 It tells us it's not an infallible, or in other words, 14 it's not a perfect measure, 15 right? We can't just assume that high brain volume also means that you're really 16 intelligent. 17 Now, do you use close to being the right answer D is on topic 18 because it calls, it talks about brain volume, but it shows no opposition by 19 saying that brain volume was correlated to body size. 20 That doesn't tell us why brain volume is not a good indicator of intelligence. 21 So no opposition in D means that D has to be the wrong answer. 22 And finally, B and C are on top or off topic. 23 Gold does not talk about Neanderthals. So Neanderthals can't possibly be an opposition to 24 her work. And finally C just says that the Dodo is extinct. 25 We already knew that that's true. And it's not telling us anything about why 26 Gold's procedure. Wasn't a good procedure, 27 right? So since B and C are off topic and D doesn't give us 28 any opposition, we could also arrive at a by process of elimination.