EMPOWERgmatVerbal wrote:
Viewing stars from telescopes on Earth is made difficult because of the “twinkle” caused by changes in the visible light from the star as it passes through our atmosphere, where the light is affected by changes in temperature and wind speed. One way to compensate for this is to put telescopes above the atmosphere where there is less distortion of visible light. Astronomers believe that new telescopes, soon to be put in space, will provide unprecedented information about unseen stars and galaxies.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to support the belief of the astronomers?
(A) Most of the stars and galaxies that have yet to be seen through telescopes have remained hidden because of their distance from Earth.
(B) Telescopes placed above Earth’s atmosphere use adaptive optics that shine laser light into the night sky, helping scientists know the path that the light takes to Earth.
(C) The new telescopes depend on infrared light that can detect objects that are moving so fast their light has been shifted out of the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
(D) Changes in temperature and wind speed can lead to substantially incorrect measurements of a star’s location, age, and speed.
(E) A rapidly turning mirror used to make telescopic images clearer by adjusting incoming light will be unnecessary with the newest telescopes.
The question setup appears to be borrowed from
this official question. But the version presented here doesn't have a good answer. The "OA", C, is clearly not correct, because C does not tell us how the new telescopes differ from the old ones. The new telescopes use infrared, but what do the old telescopes use? We aren't told. If infrared is so good, why aren't the old telescopes using it already? Unless an answer choice tells us how the new telescopes differ from the old, it can't be the right answer to a question like this -- an answer that read "the new telescopes use very good technology" obviously would not be correct, for example, but that is essentially what C says.
C is also a non sequitur. The entire question stem talks about how space telescopes are good because they will receive "visible light" undistorted by the atmosphere. But then C tells us that this one advantage we know space telescopes have, the only reason we had from the stem to think space telescopes are better than ground telescopes, is irrelevant, because the space telescopes don't use "visible light" at all. They use infrared. If C is the right answer, why is the stem even there?
The OE devotes a lot of attention to the meaning of the word "unprecedented", but if shades of meaning are important when considering that one word, they should be important when considering every word. The belief we're trying to support is that new telescopes will provide "unprecedented information about unseen stars and galaxies". Answer C tells us new telescopes can detect "
objects that are moving so fast..." Are "stars and galaxies" among the "objects" discussed in answer C? If not, answer C is utterly irrelevant to the astronomers' belief. There's no way to know from what's written in the question what is included among the "objects" answer C describes.
Answer D seems to be the only justifiable answer among the choices, since it clearly suggests the new telescopes will be capable of measurements with less error. Whether that qualifies as "unprecedented information" some might say is debatable, but 'unprecedented' simply means 'never done or known before' according to my dictionary, so any new information, groundbreaking or not, is definitionally 'unprecedented'.
close
Updated on: 22 Feb 2021, 14:55
61%
(02:30)
wrong 
