Mammals cannot digest cellulose and therefore cannot directly obtain glucose from wood. Mushrooms can, however; and s...

Emil-Kunkin on August 24, 2023

Hi, the passage starts by telling us that mammals can't make sugar from wood because we can't digest a component of it. Mushrooms however can. The way the make sugar is something called BG, and it's branched. The more branched it is, the better the mushroom sugar is at fighting cancer. The way it fights cancer is by making one's immune cells fight the cancer.

All of this is to say that the branching seems to make the bg better at fighting cancer, and it does so by helping immune cells. So, we know that the more branched the bg is, the better it is at boosting the immune system.

Shula on August 29, 2023

Thank you so much, Emil!

I'm very bad at Minor Point questions in Science passages. I study a Social Science major in college, and I barely read any sciency texts like this. I guess that's why I can't wrap my head around these technical details every time I get a Minor Point question in Science passages. Since the Minor Point questions in the Science category are very hard for me (even if I slow down), is there any advice you can give me to improve on this specific question type? Thank you so much!

Emil-Kunkin on August 29, 2023

You're on the right track by slowing down, but I think the key is that this isn't really a science passage. It's about various things, but if you replace the science terms with ones from linguistics, economics, or art history. They aren't testing your understanding of the science, but of the argument itself. Notice that I didn't even try to understand what it means to be branched, or what bg actually is.