Passage The Best Laid Plans of Ravens
The Best Laid Plans of Ravens
In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven,” a raven visits a lonely man’s home and responds to the man’s pleading questions with only the word “nevermore.” The poem’s narrator interprets the word as a prediction of doom for his future. A talking, prophetic raven may seem to be the wild imaginings of the poet, but a new study published in the journal Science hints that one particular idea behind the poem might not be as far-fetched as it seems. For most of human history, people assumed that animals do not understand the passage of time in the same way people do. Some people believed that animals might remember events from the past and that instinct might drive them to make preparations in order to guarantee survival, but most people did not think that animals had the ability to plan. At Lund University in Sweden, researchers argue that ravens may be able to think ahead and even plan for the future.
It can be difficult to test an animal’s ability to plan because human observers must be certain they are not mistaking instinctual behavior for intentional planning. For example, many animals hoard food so that they will not run out later, but scientists who study animals would not call hoarding a decision to plan for the future. This action is merely instinctual. Cognitive scientists argue that in order for an animal’s behavior to qualify as preparing for the future, the animal must use specific decision-making skills to solve a problem.
To avoid mistaking instinctual behavior for evidence of decision-making, the Lund University researchers designed two experiments to test ravens’ ability to plan. Ravens belong to the corvid family, a group of birds known for their intelligence. A study in 2007 showed that corvids have the tendency to save only certain types of food, which suggests that they are planning for the future rather than acting on instinct. In order to investigate that theory, the researchers had to design experiments that would achieve results that could not be explained by an instinctual behavior of food hoarding. Therefore, the ravens were taught two behaviors that they do not normally perform in the wild.
For the first experiment, the researchers showed the birds how to use a small stone to open a box and get treats. Once the ravens learned the behavior, the researchers presented the birds with four stones. Only one stone was the right size to open the box. The birds learned to select that stone and set it aside until the researchers presented the box. The second experiment involved bartering. A researcher would trade the ravens a large treat for a bottle cap. Later, the researchers presented the ravens with a group of items, including small treats and the bottle cap. The ravens chose the bottle cap over the treats and waited for the original researcher to trade with them again so that they could get more treats. In both experiments, the ravens waited patiently for up to seventeen hours for the researcher to return.
The results of these experiments are exciting, but more evidence needs to be gathered before scientists can fully conclude that ravens can plan for the future. Some scientists argue that the ravens might be choosing the stone and bottle cap because the ravens have been trained to do so, not necessarily because the ravens are thinking ahead. Regardless, like other recent advances in animal science, these experiments show that ravens could be much smarter than first believed, and scientists now believe that ravens do actually think about their own future.
Question
Read these sentences from paragraph 2.
For example, many animals hoard food so that they will not run out later, but scientists who study animals would not call hoarding a decision to plan for the future. This action is merely instinctual.
Which statement describes the effect of the phrase “merely instinctual” in the passage?
- AIt implies that animals are skilled at finding and saving food for later consumption.
- BIt conveys that many animals will usually prioritize gathering food over other activities.
- CIt suggests that animals often store more food than they will be able to consume.
- DIt emphasizes that many animals collect food automatically rather than with true intention.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks which statement describes the effect in the passage of the phrase “merely instinctual” from paragraph 2.
A. Incorrect. The passage does not question animals’ ability to find and save food but rather whether this or other behavior involves thought and planning for the future.
B. Incorrect. While the sentence states that “many animals hoard food,” the passage does not suggest that they give priority of thought to this activity; they hoard food out of instinct.
C. Incorrect. Although the passage discusses animals’ tendency to store a great deal of food, it does not suggest that their hoarding goes beyond their needs.
D. CORRECT. The passage suggests that in order for an animal’s actions to qualify as planning for the future, “the animal must use specific decision-making skills to solve a problem” (paragraph 2). The behavior of hoarding food is based on instinct and done automatically without real thought.
Question analysis
This word-in-context question from “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” asks about the effect of the phrase “merely instinctual,” which the article applies to food hoarding in paragraph 2. Students read two quoted sentences and decide what the phrase emphasizes about how animals behave. The choices all sound like reasonable facts about animals, so the answer has to come from how the article uses the phrase.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Grade 7 word-meaning questions often need clues gathered from a whole paragraph. Here the phrase is short and familiar, and the sentence just before it supplies a direct contrast, so one careful reading of the two quoted sentences is enough.
- Estimated difficulty
- Routine: one familiar step, little to misread.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Hard words minor
- The right answer is reworded minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 11, 599 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 108 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Most students know that an instinct is something an animal does without thinking, and the sentence just before the phrase says hoarding is not “a decision to plan.” The only real pitfall is “merely”: a student who skips it can hear praise of a natural talent, and one who thinks only about hoarding may pick a choice about storing too much. Reading the phrase with its contrast makes the answer plain.
Hard words minor Understanding the question
The phrase pairs “merely,” which shrinks what follows, with “instinctual,” and the sentence before it uses “hoard”; a student unsure of any of the three has little to go on. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
The right answer is reworded minor Choosing the answer
The right choice restates the idea as acting “automatically rather than with true intention,” while the wrong ones stay with the sentence’s own subject, finding, gathering and storing food. (Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: Ask what the word “merely” adds to “instinctual,” then reread the sentence before the phrase and use its contrast to decide what the author is saying about hoarding.
Traps
- Dictionary meaning, not meaning here: A common meaning of the word that does not fit its use in this text.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Hears “instinctual” as a natural gift, as in an instinctive athlete, and turns the phrase into praise of animals’ skill, missing that “merely” makes it a put-down.
B Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Brings in the idea of instinct as an urge that overrides everything else, but the passage never ranks food gathering above an animal’s other activities.
C Dictionary meaning, not meaning here (Perfetti, 2007)
Gives “hoard” its everyday sense of piling up too much, though the passage says animals store food so they “will not run out later,” not beyond their needs.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about the effect of a phrase. What do the words “merely instinctual” add to what the passage says about animals and food? Read the phrase together with the sentence before it.
Read the sentences around the phrase
Paragraph 2 says “many animals hoard food so that they will not run out later, but scientists who study animals would not call hoarding a decision to plan for the future. This action is merely instinctual.” To hoard is to collect and store a lot of something.
Work out what the phrase means
An instinct is a natural urge an animal is born with. It acts on it without thinking it through. So instinctual behavior is automatic. Merely means “only” or “just.” Put together, the phrase says hoarding is just automatic. It is not a real decision. The next sentence agrees: to count as planning, “the animal must use specific decision-making skills to solve a problem.”
Check each choice
- A does not fit. The phrase does not praise animals’ skill. “Merely” makes the behavior sound smaller.
- B does not fit. The passage never says animals put food ahead of other activities.
- C does not fit. The passage never says animals store too much. They store food “so that they will not run out later.”
- D fits. “Automatically rather than with true intention” means by instinct, not on purpose. An intention is a plan you have in mind.
Choose the answer
The phrase stresses that animals hoard food without real thought or purpose. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong choice, because an instinct can sound like a natural talent. But “merely” turns the phrase into a put-down. The author is saying hoarding is only instinct, not a real choice. D says the same thing: animals collect food automatically, not with true intention.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “The Best Laid Plans of Ravens” as printed (page 12)
