Question

to determine whether hanss performance was simply a ruse, the german board of education sent a team of scientists to observe von osten and his horse. the team concluded that there were no tricks involved in the horses shows. however, oskar pfungst, a psychologist associated with the team, eventually realized that hans did not possess any mathematical acumen. instead, he was just picking up on subtle changes in peoples body language and using these cues to arrive at the correct number of taps. pfungst showed that people tend to make faint movements, such as tilting their heads slightly upward, when they expect to hear a certain answer. this propensity to provide unconscious behavioral clues has become known as the clever hans effect. scientists are now very careful to take this effect into consideration when designing experiments. what is the meaning of ruse as used in the passage? elaborate surprise plan that is meant to deceive people poorly executed performance story that is not actually true

Explanation:

The passage says the team checked if Hans's performance was a "ruse" and then mentions "no tricks involved". A "plan to deceive" matches the idea of a trick. Other options: "elaborate surprise" is wrong (no surprise), "poorly executed performance" (passage is about deception, not execution), "story not true" (it's about a performance trick, not a story).

Answer:

plan that is meant to deceive people