Solving Paradox Questions in Reading Comprehension 🦅

They're asking me to explain some strange behavior.

It's a paradox question or a discrepancy question.

Now, the first step is for me to really agree that this is actually unusual.

Is there something unexpected?

And if I do not register that something unexpected is happening, I will not be able to choose an answer choice that resolves or explains this unusual behavior.

So I must understand and agree.

Now, let's read it together.

So they're saying that when a bald eagle returns to its nesting area with a fish like a herring, a shad, or a menhaden, its neighboring eagles will try to retrace its path and locate the original fishing area.

Even though bald eagles would just as willingly eat chain pickerel if available.

So that's another type of fish.

They seldom retrace the path of eagles who return with it.

Now, why would they do that?

So what they're saying in the last sentence is that if there's that type of fish that's called chain pickerel available, they would eat it.

However, when they see another eagle coming back with that the chain pickerel, they're not going to retrace the path.

They're not going to go back and find where the eagle got it from, which is what happens with the other type of fish, the herring, the shadow, the menhaden.

So why would, why would this happen?

So it is now strange behavior that I registered.

I thought, yes, indeed, that is strange.

What could be the reason?

Now, let's read the answer choices.

Answer choice alpha.

Herring, shad and menhaden are much harder to catch.

This would make the paradox even worse.

So they're giving me a reason to think, wait a minute, the eagles still do this?

They would still retrace that path and go back and, and find where that eagle brought back the herring, shad, or menhaden from, even if they're much harder to catch.

That doesn't make any sense.

So this, to me, makes the paradox worth worse.

I'm, even more confused.

Answer, Joyce.

Bravo.

Chain pickerel generally swim at much shallower depths.

Now, this tells me that, okay, this fish is at a shallow water depth.

That would actually even make it even more worse because if it were a lot deeper or it swam a lot deeper than the other fish, than the herring shadow menhaden, then this would resolve the paradox because it tells me that they're just harder to catch because they're swimming so deep.

But that actually makes it even worse because they're telling me that it swims at shallow waters.

And therefore it again makes the paradox worse.

It's telling me they're harder to catch.

So why does this strange behavior, exist?

It does not explain.

It makes it worse.

So this is out as a choice.

C.

Herringshad and menhaden move in schools, but chain pickerel generally does not.

Yes, indeed.

This explains the paradox.

It tells me that the other ones, the other fish are easier to catch because they swim in larger groups.

And so this does indeed resolve the paradox.

But always read every single answer choice.

Chain pickerel and herring have hard to see scales, but shad and menhaden do not.

Well, this divides the group differently, and it therefore does not resolve the paradox.

Chain pickerel and herring are easier, are more difficult to see.

But what about the others?

So that splitting of the groups differently does not make, the paradox easier to resolve.

Ancestors echo.

Bold eagles generally prefer hunting waterfowl to fish.

That is beyond the point.

They're asking us to compare behavior related to catching fish mentioned in the passage.

And so the correct answer is C.