PSAT Writing and Language Practice Test 11: Whale Grandmothers Know Best

Questions 34-44 refer to the following information.

Whale Grandmothers Know Best

We don't often think to apply gender differences to the animal kingdom. Certainly, males and females have 34 a distinct role, but these seem to be largely determined by biology and by the propagation of the species. As a result, many females do not live much beyond menopause, the phase after which females can no longer reproduce. The data below show that 35 only a handful of animals, such as the black-tailed prairie dog, have any post-reproductive life span at all. Some species, however, like humans, short-finned pilot whales, and killer whales, have females who typically live two or more decades after menopause. Scientists have long wondered why evolution has determined 36 they should live so much longer, sometimes to be as old as 90, than their counterparts in other species.

Relationship Between Reproductive Phase and Life Span Across Species

37 It seems that the social forces that define gender may apply to the animal kingdom as well, even though we consider animal behavior to be determined almost entirely by nature rather than nurture. After watching over 750 hours of video and observing the behaviors of pods of whales, 38 whale grandmothers were observed to have teaching behaviors by the scientists.

39 This knowledge is particularly useful for whale pods because the abundance of salmon is typically what determines whale life-cycles, both reproduction and mortality.

The scientists ascribe this behavior to what they refer to as the grandmothers' roles as "repositories of ecological 40 knowledge" in other words. Sharpened memories and long experience of learned behaviors make the older females extremely valuable to future generations. Without this knowledge, the younger whales would not be able to make the transition to maturity, and the species would not continue to propagate. The elder females have evolved this longevity because the species, simply put, needs it. 41

42 From a gender perspective, these findings further break down the idea that gender roles are biologically determined. From an age perspective, the findings also show that societies that value youth and middle age to the detriment of old age may do so at 43 there own peril. Anyone with grandparents knows that these older relatives have experienced enough of life to know a thing or two. In whale pods as well as human communities, it seems, life may depend on the accrued knowledge 44 about the secrets of life that have been gathered by the old people who know about it.