Text 1Flamingos are known for their vibrant pink coloring, but they're actually born with gray feathers. Their pink color comes...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
Flamingos are known for their vibrant pink coloring, but they're actually born with gray feathers. Their pink color comes from eating brine shrimp, but brine shrimp aren't naturally pink either. Animals can't produce carotenoids, the pigments that provide the pink hue. The algae that brine shrimp feed on, however, can produce these pigments. Thus, the pinker the flamingo, the more shrimp it has eaten.
Text 2
Ecologist Juan Amat has found that flamingos apply a kind of makeup to make themselves appear pinker. A gland near their tail contains pigments that come from the food they eat. When the flamingos groom themselves using the pigments, their feathers become pinker. Flamingos may do this to improve their success during mating season, when they would benefit from looking pinker.
Based on the texts, how would the ecologist in Text 2 most likely respond to the author's conclusion in Text 1?
By emphasizing that flamingos' tail feathers are pinker than their other feathers are
By claiming that the coloring of flamingos' feathers doesn't change significantly enough for most observers to notice
By pointing out that the amount of shrimp eaten isn't the only thing that influences flamingos' coloring
By arguing that flamingos' diet doesn't include much shrimp except during mating season
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
Text 1:
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Flamingos are known for their vibrant pink coloring, but they're actually born with gray feathers." |
|
| "Their pink color comes from eating brine shrimp, but brine shrimp aren't naturally pink either." |
|
| "Animals can't produce carotenoids, the pigments that provide the pink hue." |
|
| "The algae that brine shrimp feed on, however, can produce these pigments." |
|
| "Thus, the pinker the flamingo, the more shrimp it has eaten." |
|
Text 2:
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Ecologist Juan Amat has found that flamingos apply a kind of makeup to make themselves appear pinker." |
|
| "A gland near their tail contains pigments that come from the food they eat." |
|
| "When the flamingos groom themselves using the pigments, their feathers become pinker." |
|
| "Flamingos may do this to improve their success during mating season, when they would benefit from looking pinker." |
|
Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: While Text 1 concludes that flamingo pinkness directly reflects shrimp consumption, Text 2 reveals that flamingos also actively enhance their color through grooming with stored pigments.
Argument Flow: Text 1 establishes a straightforward food-to-color relationship. Text 2 introduces a complicating factor - flamingos actively manipulate their appearance using stored pigments, suggesting that color intensity reflects more than just recent feeding patterns.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
What's being asked? The question asks how Juan Amat (the ecologist from Text 2) would most likely respond to Text 1's conclusion that "the pinker the flamingo, the more shrimp it has eaten."
What type of answer do we need? A response that shows how Text 2's findings would challenge, modify, or complicate Text 1's straightforward conclusion.
Any limiting keywords? None specified.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- Text 1's conclusion is simple: more pink means more shrimp eaten
- But Text 2 introduces a major complication - flamingos also actively make themselves pinker through grooming behavior using stored pigments
- This means that when we see a very pink flamingo, we cannot automatically assume it just ate a lot of shrimp - it might also be a flamingo that has been doing grooming application
- The ecologist would need to point out that Text 1's conclusion oversimplifies the situation because it ignores the grooming factor
- Shrimp consumption is not the only variable affecting pinkness
By emphasizing that flamingos' tail feathers are pinker than their other feathers are
- Claims the ecologist would emphasize tail feathers being pinker than other feathers
- Text 2 does not compare different feather areas - it just says grooming makes feathers pinker overall
- Misses the main point about multiple factors affecting color
By claiming that the coloring of flamingos' feathers doesn't change significantly enough for most observers to notice
- Suggests the ecologist would claim color changes are not noticeable to observers
- This contradicts Text 2, which specifically says flamingos become pinker through grooming and benefit from looking pinker
By pointing out that the amount of shrimp eaten isn't the only thing that influences flamingos' coloring
- Points out that shrimp consumption is not the only factor influencing flamingo coloring
- Directly addresses Text 1's conclusion by showing it is incomplete - grooming with tail gland pigments also affects pinkness
By arguing that flamingos' diet doesn't include much shrimp except during mating season
- Claims flamingos only eat much shrimp during mating season
- Text 2 never discusses when flamingos eat shrimp - it only mentions that grooming behavior might occur during mating season