A population of game ducks at a western lake contains 55 males to every 45 females, while a population of game ducks ...
@dardenDecember 6, 2019
There isn't a consistent way to arrive at the correct answer
Hello,
I am having trouble with the "must be true" questions, because it seems as if every time I have trouble with a mtb question, and I go and look at the discussion board, there is a different way that said problem was solved from all of the other problems. In some explanations for correct answer choices, some people have stated, "We can infer..." I thought we were NEVER supposed to "infer." I am having trouble grasping the overall concept of mtb questions as a whole, and it's stressing me out. Any help/input would be greatly appreciated.
Very respectfully,
Darden
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@darden, thanks for your question! This is a common issue for students, so don't stress too much. Actually, it's good to be wary of making assumptions or unfounded inferences, so you're on the right track.
The key here is that there's a big difference between what we can INFER based on support from the passage and what we can ASSUME based on our own knowledge of the outside world. These inferences are okay, but the assumptions are never allowed. In fact, even the question in this case is asking us what can be "inferred" from the passage. The most important thing to remember here is that these inferences need to be based on explicit support from the passage. In other words, you should be able to point to a specific claim in the passage as clear evidence for the inference you are making. If you can do that, then the inference is valid. In this case, that explicit evidence is the fact that the western lake contains 55 males to every 45 females while the eastern lake contains 65 males to every 35 females.
Does that make sense? Please reach out with any other questions and best of luck with your studies!
