"Surprising" Phenomenon
The cheetah has a spotted coat and lives out in the open savannah, even though other cats with spotted coats live in forests.
Objective
The correct answer will be a hypothesis that explains a key difference between cheetahs and other large cat species. That difference must result in cheetahs gaining some advantage from their spots despite spots being incongruous with their habitat, or else result in the spots making no difference at all.
A
Unlike all other large cat species, cheetahs’ hunting strategy does not rely on stealth but instead relies purely on speed.
Cheetahs have spots because they can—it doesn’t mess with their ability to hunt. Unlike other cat species, they aren’t trying sneak up on their prey. Instead, they use their speed to hunt, so they don’t need to camouflage.
B
Of all the large cat species, cheetahs most often have their prey stolen from them by larger predators.
What’s the point of spots in this scenario? It still seems that spots would be a disadvantage for cheetahs. We need something to say that’s not the case.
C
Because they have wide paws with semiretractable claws, cheetahs are not able to climb upright trees.
We already know cheetahs aren’t climbing trees, at least not regularly—they live in the open savannah. We need to know why they have spots.
D
Unlike lions, cheetahs are typically solitary hunters.
Whether or not they’re hunting alone, cheetahs have spots that don’t blend in with their habitat. We need to know why this is.
E
Unlike all other large cat species, cheetahs are unable to roar.
This is leading us to think the spots stand in for other aggressive displays, but we need something more explicit to explain the anomaly.
Note: This is video #2 in a two-part explanation using the split approach for comparative passages. In the previous video, J.Y. already tackled whatever questions he could based solely on a readthrough of Passage A. In this video, he picks up with Passage B and then cleans up the remaining questions. So, if you don't see a full explanation for a given question in this video, it's because J.Y. tackled that question in the previous video. (Press shift + ← to head to the previous video.)
Note: This video deals with Passage A only. In this video, J.Y. uses the split approach for comparrative passages. This means he reads through Passage A and then makes a first pass through the questions, answering them to the extent possible based solely on the information in Passage A. For an explanation of Passage B and the remaining unsolved questions, head to the next video (shift + → on your keyboard).