This verbal problem on GRE Big Book just feels absolutely poorly written

[user3109]

Greg explains that “E” is the right answer because the question mainly asks about human morphology, which lets you cross out a number of the choices above. (My original answer was B).

However, this question feels very poorly written due to these reasons:

1. How am I, a test taker, able to figure out what counts as human morphology? I do not have a biology background.

2. Greg’s rationale that “C” is incorrect because it is about “training” (and thus, not biological in nature) doesn’t seem reasonable to me. The ability for some people to dive deep while others can’t swim can be attributed to biological differences (aka morphology) as well. Michael Phelps can have greater lung capacity than a random person.

What bothers me about this problem is that none of it really relates to the passage. "Details’ isn’t really defined well, “Constraints” is defined as emotions in the passage (noted by the “----” that follows its mentioning). Using the passage as your reference doesn’t seem to work with this question, and it seems to rely upon an unfair amount of outsider knowledge, which we are expressly told not to do.

How was I supposed to figure this out and get to the right answer? Any general tips? This question just feels like a foul.

Update — It should be noted the percentage correct on this problem (as reported by GRE Big Book) was literally 11%. Wow!

[Max]

First off, I’d say it’s a particularly tough question instead of a poorly written one

It requires knowing what would be considered very specific advanced vocabulary - morphology

But outside of that, it also requires very careful reasoning

I’d say based on your understanding of Greg’s explanation there you’re considering two answers, C and E

C is incorrect simply because the option doesn’t give us a “morphological” focus.
You’re correct in saying that diving deeper could have some level of morphological basis, however in most cases it’s due to training.
Without the outside knowledge of what diving requires however, simply the fact that it could be either or disqualifies it as the answer.

We would have to assume it’s morphological not behavioural. Once you have to assume, it’s incorrect.

E is the only option that references a morphological characteristic i.e In this case the bodily structure - the lung

(The argument could be made that A refers to a morphological characteristic but it’s disqualified because it is then compared to a behavioural one)