SAT OwlIn the language spoken on the island of Teluma, most words for native plants and animals have related forms in the languages of nearby islands, which suggests that they descend from a shared ancestral language. The word for the sweet potato is an exception: it closely resembles the word for the same crop in a language spoken on a distant mainland, and it has no relatives in neighboring island languages. This pattern suggests that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
the sweet potato is native to Teluma and was later carried to the mainland.
Teluma's islanders acquired the sweet potato, along with its name, through contact with the mainland.
Teluma's language is more closely related to the mainland language than to neighboring island languages.
the languages of neighboring islands have no word for the sweet potato.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
Words for native plants on Teluma have relatives on nearby islands, but the sweet potato word matches a mainland word instead. The likeliest explanation is that the crop and its name both arrived from the mainland, choice B.
Choice C overgeneralizes from one word. Most of Teluma's words have relatives on neighboring islands, so the language as a whole is closer to them.
Why the other choices are wrong
- A. If the sweet potato were native, its name would likely have relatives on nearby islands, as other native plant names do.
- C. Most of the island's words have relatives in neighboring languages. A single borrowed word doesn't make the whole language closer to the mainland one.
- D. The text says the Teluma word has no relatives in neighboring languages, not that those languages lack a word for the crop.
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