For all species of higher animals; reproduction requires the production of eggs but not necessarily the production of...

SamA on November 7, 2019

Hello @farnoushsalimian,

"If the statements above are true..." tells us that we are taking the given information given as fact. We do not need to evaluate this information. Rather, we need to find an answer choice that contradicts this information. Our four wrong answers could be true according to the passage. Our right answer cannot be true.

A. This could be true. The passage says "rare female-only species," which suggests that there could be other salamander species that have males and females.

B. This cannot be true. Take a look at the first sentence. "For all species of higher animals, reproduction requires the production of eggs..." Are there some higher animals that do not produce eggs? No, because the passage says that all of them do. This is the correct answer.

C. Is there anything in the passage that prevents this? We already know about one all-female species. That by itself could be a significant number. It may be rare, but there is nothing to suggest there cannot be more.

D. We are told that the drawback to all-female species is that the genetic code is identical to one parent, making the species less adaptive. However, that doesn't guarantee that two parents will make adaptive offspring. There could be a number of other factors that affect adaptability. Therefore, D could be true.

E. I don't see anything in the passage that prevents this. Could be true.