Hey everyone. The answer to the following question is listed as option E (Sentence 5) but according to my reasoning, option B (Sentence 2) is more accurate. Herbarium records were used to verify the presence of a plant with regards to its distribution & frequency. Sentence 2 offers the first reason of why the herbarium records showed inconsistencies, not reflecting the real magnitude of a plant’s presence, as they were skewed by the personal biases of the collectors. While I do agree that Sentence 5 also provides a plausible reason, Sentence 2 is the first instance where one has been provided, leading me to choose that option.
You make a good point, but the “inconsistency” isn’t even mentioned until after sentence 2, so it would be weird to say that it’s explaining the inconsistency.
But the reason is provided, stated as “influenced by personal biases”, thereby affecting the knowledge of a plant’s true presence in a region, to paraphrase the latter part of the sentence, which shows inconsistency. The question doesn’t ask about Blue Vervain specifically, it talks about the generic records, to which Sentence 2 seems like the answer. Had it been specifically Blue Vervain, then Sentence 5 would have been the answer.
I think “the inconsistency” is specifically referring to the bit about the Blue Vervain plant
Lol, I guess we need a tiebreaker!!! Jokes aside, I apologize for the delay in my reply, I had work during the day. More than knowing the right answer, my main concern is will I be seeing such ambiguity in the GRE exam as well? If yes, how do I tackle it? Because while I do stand by my reasoning, it will be difficult if such questions appear in the exam with no clear answer.
Haha. I think our questions are far from perfect for sure. You can email Greg about this one if you like, since he wrote it, maybe he can clarify.
And don’t worry, ETS questions will be super clear without ambiguity. They put a lot of care/money into writing their questions.
Thanks for the reply, Ganesh. I will send out the email and post the response here, for everyone’s reference.