DSAT R&W Practice Question-Information and Ideas-Command of Evidence - Hard
DSAT R&W Practice Question-Information and Ideas-Command of Evidence – Hard
DSAT R&W Practice Question-Information and Ideas-Command of Evidence – Hard is part of Expression of Ideas : This section evaluates students’ ability to identify main ideas in a passage and the ability to make inferences about what the text implies, not just stating the obvious facts. Interpreting, evaluating, and combining different pieces of information from multiple sources is tested
Weightage : 26%
Subtopic: Information and ideas
Question
In the United States, firms often seek incentives from municipal governments to expand to those municipalities. A team of political scientists hypothesized that municipalities are much more likely to respond to firms and offer incentives if expansions can be announced in time to benefit local elected officials than if they can’t. The team contacted officials in thousands of municipalities, inquiring about incentives for a firm looking to expand and indicating that the firm would announce its expansion on a date either just before or just after the next election.
Which choice best describes data from the graph that weaken the team’s hypothesis?
A. A large majority of the municipalities that received an inquiry mentioning plans for an announcement before the next election didn’t respond to the inquiry.
B. The proportion of municipalities that responded to the inquiry or offered incentives didn’t substantially differ across the announcement timing conditions.
C. Only around half the municipalities that responded to inquiries mentioning plans for an announcement before the next election offered incentives.
D. Of the municipalities that received an inquiry mentioning plans for an announcement date after the next election, more than 1,200 didn’t respond and only around 100 offered incentives.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans. B
Correct Answer: B
Rationale
Choice B is the best answer. The lighter bars show what happened when the announcement was to come before the election, and the darker bars show what happened when the announcement was to come after the election. For all three of the outcomes, the light and dark bars are virtually the same, demonstrating that the announcement timing didn’t actually make a difference.
Choice A is incorrect. This accurately describes some data from the graph, but it doesn’t weaken the hypothesis. It doesn’t include the “announcement after election” data for comparison. Choice C is incorrect. This accurately describes some data from the graph, but it doesn’t weaken the hypothesis. It doesn’t include the “announcement after election” data for comparison. Choice D is incorrect. This accurately describes some data from the graph, but it doesn’t weaken the hypothesis. It doesn’t include the “announcement before election” data for comparison.
Question
Employing high-performance liquid chromatography—a process that uses pressurized water to separate material into its component molecules—astrochemist Yashiro Oba and colleagues analyzed two samples of the Murchison meteorite that landed in Australia as well as soil from the landing zone of the meteorite to determine the concentrations of various organic molecules. By comparing the relative concentrations of types of molecules known as nucleobases in the Murchison meteorite with those in the soil, the team concluded that there is evidence that the nucleobases in the Murchison meteorite formed in space and are not the result of contamination on Earth.
Which choice best describes data from the table that support the team’s conclusion?
A. Isoguanine and purine were detected in both meteorite samples but not in the soil sample.
B. Adenine and xanthine were detected in both of the meteorite samples and in the soil sample.
C. Hypoxanthine and purine were detected in both the Murchison meteorite sample 2 and in the soil sample.
D. Isoguanine and hypoxanthine were detected in the Murchison meteorite sample 1 but not in sample 2.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans. A
Correct Answer: A
Rationale
Choice A is the best answer. The researchers concluded that the meteorite’s nucleobases weren’t the result of soil contamination. Presence of nucleobases in the meteorite and not in soil provides evidence that those nucleobases likely didn’t come from the soil.
Choice B is incorrect. This choice doesn’t justify the conclusion. The researchers concluded that the meteorite’s nucleobases weren’t the result of soil contamination. If the nucleobases are present in both the soil and meteorite, then it’s possible that these nucleobases came from the soil. Choice C is incorrect. This choice misreads the table. Purine was not detected in the soil sample. Choice D is incorrect. This choice misreads the table. Both isoguanine and hypoxanthine were detected in both Murchison meteorite samples.