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Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

Adapted from "Taking a Second Look: An Analysis of Genetic Markers in Species Relatedness" by Joseph Ritchie (2014)

Phylogenetics is the study of genetic composition in various species and is used by evolutionary biologists to investigate similarities in the molecular sequences of proteins in varying organisms. The amino acid sequences that build proteins are used to construct mathematical matrices that aid in determining evolutionary ties through the investigation of percentage similarities. The study of these matrices helps to expose evolutionary relationships between species that may not have the same overt characteristics.

Species adapt and evolve based on the pressures that exist in their environment. Climate, food source, and habitat availability are only a few factors that act on species adaptation. These stressors can alter the physical characteristics of organisms. This divergence in evolution has made it difficult to determine the interrelatedness of organisms by analyzing their physical characteristics alone.

For instance, looking only at physical characteristics, the ghost bat resembles a pigeon more than a spider monkey; however, phylogenetics has found that the amino acid sequences that construct the beta hemoglobin molecules of bats are twenty percent more similar to those of mammalian primates than those of birds. This helps reject the assumption that common physical characteristics between species are all that is needed to determine relatedness.

The differences produced by divergent evolution observed in the forest-dwelling, arboreal spider monkey and the nocturnal, airborne ghost bat can be reconciled through homology. Homologous characteristics are anatomical traits that are similar in two or more different species. For instance, the bone structure of a spider monkey’s wrist and fingers greatly resembles that of a bat’s wing or even a whale’s fin. These similarities are reinforced by phylogenetic evidence that supports the idea that physically dissimilar species can be evolutionarily related through anatomical and genetic similarities.

Paragraph four of the passage discusses which of the following?

The reasons why a spider monkey’s wrist and fingers can resemble a bat's wing or a whale's fin

All of these statements

The physiological functions of the spider monkey’s wrist and fingers, the bat’s wing, and the whale’s fin

The theory of evolution

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Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

Paragraph four of the passage discusses which of the following?

Your answer:

All of these statements

Your answer:

The physiological functions of the spider monkey’s wrist and fingers, the bat’s wing, and the whale’s fin

Your answer:

The theory of evolution

Correct answer:

The reasons why a spider monkey’s wrist and fingers can resemble a bat's wing or a whale's fin

Explanation:

One of paragraph four's central purposes is to give examples of homologous adaptation. It describes how the features of different species can possess anatomical similarities, even if the species are from vastly different habitats. The passage does not discuss the theory of evolution nor the physiological purposes of certain appendages, and the third paragraph, not the fourth, discusses the unreliability of physical characteristics in determining species relatedness.

Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

Adapted from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf (1915).

"[... Rachel] had been educated as the majority of well-to-do girls in the last part of the nineteenth century were educated. Kindly doctors and gentle old professors had taught her the rudiments of about ten different branches of knowledge, but they would as soon have forced her to go through one piece of drudgery thoroughly as they would have told her that her hands were dirty. The one hour or the two hours weekly passed very pleasantly, partly owing to the other pupils, partly to the fact that the window looked upon the back of a shop, where figures appeared against the red windows in winter, partly to the accidents that are bound to happen when more than two people are in the same room together. But there was no subject in the world which she knew accurately. Her mind was in the state of an intelligent man's in the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth; she would believe practically anything she was told, invent reasons for anything she said. The shape of the earth, the history of the world, how trains worked, or money was invested, what laws were in force, which people wanted what, and why they wanted it, the most elementary idea of a system in modern life—none of this had been imparted to her by any of her professors or mistresses. But this system of education had one great advantage. It did not teach anything, but it put no obstacle in the way of any real talent that the pupil might chance to have. Rachel, being musical, was allowed to learn nothing but music; she became a fanatic about music. All the energies that might have gone into languages, science, or literature, that might have made her friends, or shown her the world, poured straight into music. Finding her teachers inadequate, she had practically taught herself. At the age of twenty-four she knew as much about music as most people do when they are thirty; and could play as well as nature allowed her to, which, as became daily more obvious, was a really generous allowance. If this one definite gift was surrounded by dreams and ideas of the most extravagant and foolish description, no one was any the wiser."

The phrase "a really generous allowance" refers to ___________________.

Rachel's love of music practice

Rachel's considerable musical talent

A large sum of money that Rachel could use however she wished

An anonymous gift that enabled Rachel to practice as often as she wanted

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Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

The phrase "a really generous allowance" refers to ___________________.

Your answer:

Rachel's love of music practice

Your answer:

A large sum of money that Rachel could use however she wished

Your answer:

An anonymous gift that enabled Rachel to practice as often as she wanted

Correct answer:

Rachel's considerable musical talent

Explanation:

The word "allowance" here refers to the level at which nature enables Rachel to play music, which is a very high level. Thus, it refers to her natural musical ability rather than to a sum of money or a gift given by another person.

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Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

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Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

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Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

Flashcards: Rhetorical purpose of an excerpt

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