This question tests your ability to match evidence to the scope of a claim—a skill that shows up constantly on digital admissions exams.
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Video: Related Is Not Enough. From the Mr. O series Support the Claim: Find the Evidence That Proves It.
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Start 1-day free trial →📚 The Rule: Understanding Domain 1
The ecologists in this passage want to boost stony coral colonies globally. The new tool is a gel coating made from Pacific coral-reef chemicals. But it has only been tested on one Pacific coral species. So the question becomes: which new finding would show that this tool can actually work worldwide?
A finding that extends the tool's effectiveness to other oceans and other coral species directly strengthens the global claim. Findings that only repeat the initial test or talk about unrelated properties do not. Focus on whether the new evidence expands the reach of the tool—that is the scope test.
Remember: digital exam makers often include options that sound helpful but don't widen the scope. Your job is to ignore those distractions and pick the one that literally extends the evidence beyond its current limits.
How to Attack These Questions:
- Step 1: Identify the ecologists' objective and its scope. The first sentence tells you they aim to boost stony coral colonies globally. That means worldwide impact, not just one ocean or species.
- Step 2: Note what the new tool currently does. The passage says the gel was only tested on Montipora capitata, a Pacific coral. So right now, evidence is limited to one region and one species. A claim that the tool can support a global objective needs broader proof.
- Step 3: Eliminate answer choices that either don't involve the new tool, don't mention regions outside the Pacific, or don't address multiple coral species. The correct answer must show that the tool's key ingredient (metabolites from Pacific CCA) works on corals in other regions and on different species.
Passage Context: Metabolites are natural chemicals that organisms release; in the passage, they act as signals for coral larvae to settle. Settlement refers to the process where free-swimming larvae attach to a surface and begin growing into a new coral colony. These terms are central to understanding how the tool mimics nature.
🎯 The Practice Question
Orbicella annularis, a Caribbean coral with rounded columns, and Acropora divaricata, a Pacific coral with cushion-shaped plates, are both stony corals—the type that builds reefs. Boosting stony coral colonies globally is a key objective for ecologists, as microplastic pollution and other pressures increasingly harm reefs. In the wild, crustose coralline algae (CCA) encourage growth of the healthy reefs they inhabit by emitting lipids and other metabolites—chemical cues that induce coral larvae settlement. Biotechnology researcher Zahra Karimi and team have created a tool to reinstate those cues in damaged reefs: a gel coating embedded with metabolites derived from Pacific CCA. In tests with Montipora capitata, a Pacific stony coral, settlement rates increased substantially.
Which finding, if true, would best support a claim that the new tool already has the capacity to support the scope of the ecologists’ objective?
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✅ The Correct Answer
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Answer D directly broadens the tool's scope. It states that the same Pacific CCA metabolites improve settlement for Orbicella annularis—a Caribbean coral—and for a range of other species in non-Pacific regions. This shows the tool can work on corals far beyond the original test subject and location, matching the ecologists' global objective. No other option connects Pacific-derived cues to Caribbean or diverse global species.
🚫 Why the Others Violate the Rule
Choice A: This finding compares damaged and healthy reefs when CCA are present naturally—it never mentions the new gel tool or metabolites derived from CCA. Without the tool, it doesn't support the claim about the tool's capacity.
🩺 Diagnosis: You may have missed that the question is about the new tool, not natural CCA. Review how to check whether the evidence directly involves the thing being claimed.
Choice B: Stability of the metabolites is interesting, but it does not prove the tool works on different coral species or in different oceans. A stable ingredient could still only be effective on the originally tested species.
🩺 Diagnosis: You may have focused on practicality instead of scope. Review the difference between a tool's durability and its ability to work across different targets.
Choice C: This finding links metabolite concentration to larger colonies of only one Pacific coral (Acropora divaricata) and mentions diversity only in Pacific reefs. It still does not show the tool can succeed outside the Pacific or on Caribbean corals.
🩺 Diagnosis: You might have assumed that if it works in the Pacific for one more species, that's global enough. Review how to differentiate regional evidence from global evidence.
⚠️ Anatomy of the Trap
The Global Trap: Test-makers often offer evidence that sounds useful but doesn't actually expand the claim's geographic or species scope. It tricks you into thinking that any positive result about the tool's ingredient is automatically supportive.
In this exact question: Choice B lures you with long-term stability, which seems like a practical advantage. However, stability alone doesn't show the tool works on different corals elsewhere—it only shows the chemical doesn't degrade quickly.
📸 Screenshot This Rule
"Global claims demand global evidence—never settle for just the backyard test."
Stop Relying on What "Sounds Right"
The Test Advantage offers thousands of premium, exam-accurate questions built on the exact logical rules you will face on test day. Learn the frameworks, avoid the traps, and master the digital exam.
Start Your Free 3-Day Trial →Core Focus Areas
- Mastering
- Evidence
- Scope
- Coral
- Global
- Claim
- Question
- Practice
- Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Domain 1?
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