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Information and IdeasVery hardInference about birdsong dialects

Information and Ideas practice question

Young white-crowned sparrows learn their song by listening to adult males during their first summer. Populations separated by a few kilometres of forest sing recognisably different versions, and a bird raised in isolation sings a crude, unfinished song. A chick moved as an egg from one valley to another will, on reaching adulthood, sing ____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

  1. A. the version of the song heard in the valley where it was raised.Correct
  2. B. the version of the song from the valley where it was laid.
  3. C. a crude, unfinished song.
  4. D. a mixture of the two valleys' versions.

Answer: A. the version of the song heard in the valley where it was raised.

Song comes from what is heard in the first summer.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. the version of the song from the valley where it was laid.
The egg's origin does not supply the song.
C. a crude, unfinished song.
It is not raised in isolation.
D. a mixture of the two valleys' versions.
It hears only one valley's song.

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