This page is part of my unofficial solutions manual to the GRE Paper Practice Book (2e), a free resource available on the ETS website. They publish the questions; I explain the answers. If you haven’t worked through the Practice Book, give Section 3 a shot before reading this!

3.12: Geese and Salt Marshes, pt. 1

Here, the phrase “most likely” puts us on notice that we’re looking for the best answer, rather than a single right answer. As in previous questions, we can simplify our work by eliminating any patently false answers, leaving only a subset of the answer choices for serious consideration. In tackling questions like this, I sometimes advise my students to think of the answers as contestants on a stage, competing for their attention. (Kennel Club? “GRE’s Got Talent?” You decide.) Removing the most obviously wrong answers makes the stage less crowded and gives them fewer contestants to judge between. Much of successful GRE prep — both Verbal and Math — involves this sort of cognitive load reduction.

The key to this particular question (and to 3.13, for that matter) is the observation that “the standard view” (line 14) is the same as the “widely held belief” in line 11. The “belief” is that the role of geese in marsh ecosystems is minimal. Does that (A) explain how geese can turn a salt marsh into a mudflat? No. Nor does it (B) summarize the events whereby marshes are turned into mudflats. In fact, the “belief” / “view” is challenged (C) by the author’s account of geese profoundly but indirectly influencing their ecosystem. Our rejection of the final two answer choices follows from our initial observation: the “standard view” doesn’t call the “belief” into question (D), or vice versa (E), because the “view” and the “belief” are one and the same.