The following appeared as part of a letter to the editor of a scientific journal.
"A recent study of eighteen rhesus monkeys provides clues as to the effects of birth order on an individual's levels of stimulation. The study showed that in stimulating situations (such as an encounter with an unfamiliar monkey), firstborn infant monkeys produce up to twice as much of the hormone cortisol, which primes the body for increased activity levels, as do their younger siblings. Firstborn humans also produce relatively high levels of cortisol in stimulating situations (such as the return of a parent after an absence). The study also found that during pregnancy, first-time mother monkeys had higher levels of cortisol than did those who had had several offspring."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument
The argument makes a number of unwarranted assumptions regarding the eighteen rhesus monkeys whose levels of stimulation are similar to the human and tus the human body will show similarity to the monkey. Taken as a whole, these unstated assumptions render the argument highly suspect. If these unstated assumptions do not hold true, then the argument totally falls apart.
The accusation made by the editor that the clues received from the study about the effects of birth order on the levels of stimulation will be analogous to the human's body is illogical. The fact that humans were monkey. But, this was million millions of years before. The human body has went through many stages of metamorphosis. It will be misleading to compare the effect found in the rhesus monkeys to the human body.
As the argument stated that the study has been limited to a specific number of specific species of monkeys. A study based on only eighteen rhesus monkeys is not adequate to come to a conclusion that even the human will also show same effects. Moreover, the argument also states that first born infant monkeys produce twice the amount of hormone coristol than the younger siblings. This might be the case where the older monkey must have reached his maturity and has secreted these hormones which primes the body for increased level of activities. And this was inferred from the experiments made on some unfamiliar species.
Another unstated assumption which the argument makes is that the first time mother monkeys had higher levels of coristol than those who had several offspring during pregnancy. It rises a question whether the later monkey mother must have had the similar high levels of coristols at her first pregnancy. May be every mother monkey reaches the same levels of coristol at their first pregnancy.
Unless the argument can show that there is clear reason that effects on rhesus monkeys is similar to the humans body, then it would be illogical to accept the results of the study.The argument makes a number of illogical assumptions which undermine its validity.
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Sentence: The human body has went through many stages of metamorphosis.
Description: A verb 'to have', present tense, 3rd person singular is not usually followed by a verb, past tense
Suggestion: Refer to has and went
flaws:
This is a new GRE essay topic which is a bit different to those arguments essays.
You don't need to find flaws from the arguments but are asked to 'discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation...'
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 1 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 347 350
No. of Characters: 1704 1500
No. of Different Words: 172 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.316 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.911 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.403 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 126 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 88 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 57 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 28 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.412 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.123 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.529 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.331 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.572 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.097 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5