Arguments and Evidence

In recent years, urban planners in Southgate have advocated for replacing traditional asphalt roads with permeable paver blocks. Proponents claim that this transition will dramatically reduce urban runoff by allowing rainwater to filter directly into subsurface aquifers, thereby preventing seasonal street flooding. Their argument relies on pilot study data demonstrating that newly installed permeable pavers absorb up to eighty percent of surface water. Based on these findings, the city council recently approved a major capital project to pave all high-traffic downtown avenues with permeable blocks.

However, environmental engineer Dr. Aris Thorne argues that this initiative will not achieve its intended flood mitigation goals. Thorne points out that permeable pavers require specialized high-pressure vacuuming every three months to clear fine sediment from the gaps; otherwise, silt accumulation reduces water infiltration to the level of standard asphalt within eighteen months. Because Southgate's public works department currently possesses only conventional street sweepers and lacks the budgetary funds to purchase specialized vacuuming machinery, Thorne concludes that the new paving project will ultimately fail to alleviate downtown flooding.

Dr. Thorne's conclusion that the project will fail to alleviate downtown flooding depends on which of the following unstated assumptions?

Recent studies in cognitive linguistics demonstrate that native speakers of languages with grammatical gender—such as German or Spanish—frequently attribute gender-stereotyped adjectives to inanimate objects. For instance, when asked to describe a key, German speakers (for whom 'key' is masculine) often select words like 'hard' and 'heavy,' whereas Spanish speakers (for whom 'key' is feminine) prefer words like 'golden' and 'intricate.' Based on these findings, educational researchers have proposed replacing traditional foreign language instruction in primary schools with gender-neutral artificial languages. Proponents argue that eliminating grammatical gender from early language acquisition will effectively prevent children from forming subconscious gender biases regarding human professional roles. Consequently, they claim this curriculum reform is essential for building a more egalitarian society.

Which of the following represents an unstated assumption upon which the proponents' argument for curriculum reform depends?

Based on the passage below, match each of the claims regarding the function of zebra stripes with its corresponding evidence or status of support.

Passage

For decades, biologists hypothesized that the zebra’s bold black-and-white stripes functioned primarily as a cooling mechanism, generating micro-currents of air across the animal's skin. However, recent empirical studies have challenged this thermoregulation claim. Researchers led by Dr. Alison Cobb measured the skin temperatures of wild zebras and found no significant difference in cooling efficiency compared to uniform-colored herbivores in the same environment. Instead, experimental evidence increasingly supports the hypothesis that stripes serve to deter biting flies. In controlled field tests, scientists covered horse models with various patterned rugs. They observed that tabanid flies (horseflies) attempted to land on striped surfaces far less frequently than on solid-colored ones. High-speed video analysis revealed that the flies failed to decelerate properly when approaching stripes, suggesting that the pattern disrupts their visual processing during landing. While some researchers still argue that stripes may also disrupt predator tracking by creating a motion dazzle effect, the physical deterrence of disease-carrying insects stands as the claim with the most robust experimental backing to date.