GRE Reading Comprehension

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Source: NO2

Although scientists observe that an organism's behavior falls into rhythmic patterns, they disagree about how these patterns are affected when the organism is transported to a new environment. One experimenter, Brown, brought oysters from Connecticut waters to Illinois waters. She noted that the oysters initially opened their shells widest when it was high tide in Connecticut, but that after fourteen days their rhythms had adapted to the tide schedule in Illinois. Although she could not posit an unequivocal causal relationship between behavior and environmental change, Brown concluded that a change in tide schedule is one of several possible exogenous influences (those outside the organism) on the oysters' rhythms. Another experimenter, Hamner, however, discovered that hamsters from California maintain their original rhythms even at the South Pole. He concluded that endogenous influences (those inside the organism) seem to affect an organism's rhythmic behavior.

Question List: 1 2 3 4

The passage suggests that Brown's study was similar to Hamner's in which of thefollowing ways?

Ⅰ. Both experimenters discovered that anew environment had a significant effect on an organism's behavioral rhythms.

Ⅱ. Both experimenters observed an organism's behavioral rhythms after the organism had been transported to a new environment.

Ⅲ. Both experimenters knew a organism's rhythmic patterns in its original environment.

  • A Ⅰonly
  • B Ⅱonly
  • C Ⅰand Ⅱ only
  • D Ⅱand Ⅲ only
  • E Ⅰ,Ⅱ,and Ⅲ

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