SAT Reading & Writing · Inferences
The pattern of results most strongly suggests that traffic noise interferes with owl hunting success by ______
In controlled experiments, playing recorded traffic noise near owl hunting grounds reduced the owls' hunting success, with the strongest effects observed for owls that rely primarily on sound to locate prey instead of sight. Which choice most logically completes the text?
The pattern of results most strongly suggests that traffic noise interferes with owl hunting success by ______
The pattern of results most strongly suggests that traffic noise interferes with owl hunting success by ______
Answer and explanation
Answer: D: masking the auditory cues that acoustically oriented hunters depend on to locate prey, instead of affecting hunting through some other sense.
The detail that does the most work in the passage is that the effect was strongest specifically for owls that hunt by sound. That selective pattern points to interference with the sense actually being used, which is what D states. A proposes a completely different mechanism (avoidance) the passage never measures. C describes an effect on prey, not on the owls' hunting ability, and the passage's finding is about hunting success, not prey visibility. B proposes permanent physical damage, a much stronger and unsupported claim compared to a temporary masking effect during the experiment.
More Inferences questions
- Question 7Because the repair required deliberate, careful drilling instead of simply discarding the broken…
- Question 8The absence of any mention of physical decline most strongly suggests that ______
- Question 34This discrepancy most strongly suggests that ______
- Question 58This difference between children and apes most strongly suggests that children's faithful copying…
- Question 80This pattern suggests that students' judgments about how well they are learning ______
- Question 81This pattern, known as the expertise-reversal effect, suggests that the most effective amount of…
Learn the method behind questions like this one
The SAT Reading & Writing course teaches each tested skill through lessons, step-by-step solutions to sample problems, the complete study guide and full-length practice tests.