A question about how two texts relate tests how new findings affect an earlier interpretation. Read the question, then put the interpretation and its reason in a few words. Ask what the second text adds, and name how it responds to the claim: reject means challenge it, qualify means limit it, and extend means take it further. Then check the reason against what the second text reports. A choice can give the right response for a reason the text doesn’t support.
Hints
- Hint 1
Return to the end of Text 1 and separate Okafor’s proposed explanation from the result that led to it.
- Hint 2
In Text 2, look for the survival difference within the matrix-deficient group. What changes between the bacteria that often survive and those that rarely do?
- Hint 3
Connect the phages’ movement to the survival pattern. How does that connection relate to Okafor’s proposed refuges?
Step-by-step
Trace protection through position
Step 1Identify Okafor’s explanation
Okafor’s surviving bacteria became as vulnerable to the phages as untreated bacteria were once they were dispersed. Why does that matter for her interpretation? The protection seems to come from how bacteria are packed together, not a lasting change within each bacterium. We need to compare Text 2’s findings with that proposed source of protection.
- Step 2
Compare bacteria that can’t produce matrix
Where do bacteria unable to produce matrix survive? Text 2 describes regions crowded with matrix producers: bacteria located behind those regions frequently survived, while those at exposed edges rarely did. Neither group can produce matrix, so position helps explain who survives. The wording rather than the relative positions misses this contrast because bacteria with the same inability to produce matrix have different chances of surviving depending on where they are.
- Step 3
Separate support from unreported results
Phage movement slowed in producer-dense regions, which gives new support for the spatial explanation. Does that mean we need to repeat Okafor’s test with dispersed bacteria? No, so do not strengthen it ignores evidence from a different experiment. Still, Text 2 reports survival for matrix-deficient bacteria, not the producers, so protect both the matrix producers adds a result that wasn’t reported.
- Step 4
Explain how the refuge could form
A producer-dense outer region can act as a barrier between incoming phages and bacteria behind it, slowing the viruses before they reach those bacteria. That gives a possible way that Okafor’s three-dimensional packing could create refuges. The choice with refining it adds this way of shielding bacteria to her spatial explanation and keeps it cautious with may. Choice C.