Digital PSAT Reading and Writing Practice Question 209: Answer and Explanation

Question: 209

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

■ Professionals in both law enforcement and forensics need a way to study human body decomposition prior to taking on specific cases.

■ To allow people to learn about the decomposition of the human body, a "body farm" can be a great help.

■ People can donate their bodies to a body farm upon death, where their bodies may be exposed to different conditions so that learning can take place as to how a human body will decompose under different circumstances.

■ FBI agents and other law enforcement professionals may study at a body farm to be better able to work with human remains and gather evidence used to catch criminals.

The student wants to suggest a way that typical readers might contribute to body decomposition research. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

• A. Professionals engaged in law enforcement might benefit from studying the latest publications on body decomposition.
• B. Those who are interested in helping body decomposition research can elect to donate their bodies to such research upon their deaths.
• C. Without doing detailed comparisons of bodies from different situations, law enforcement officials will be ill-equipped to apply body decomposition research to actual crimes.
• D. Advances in artificial intelligence will negate the need for further research in bodily forensics.

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

(B) Typical readers are not likely to be law enforcement professionals, so Choice B provides the most viable way that someone without a specific skill set could contribute to this sort of research. It is not A or C because these focus on law enforcement professionals. It is not D because this does not relate to the provided notes.