Hi
stonecold, good question!
Quote:
I have a query regarding the last question in this series.
We are asked about the ability of the researchers in the line 18.
The passage clearly indicates and even mentions -> They were able to predict the timing but not the magnitude." indistinguishable from other minor tremors that occur"
I am still convinced that the OA should be A.
What am i missing.?
P.S-> I have seen the other replies.
without large earthquakes.
Imagine that the researchers recorded 100 large earthquakes of various magnitudes during their study and that nearly all of those large earthquakes were preceded by minor tremors. This might lead us to expect any minor tremor to be followed by a large earthquake, even though we might not know exactly how large that "large" earthquake will be. Thus, choice A is tempting.
Now consider the final fact given in line 23: "these foreshocks... are indistinguishable from other minor tremors that occur without large earthquakes." If instead the passage stated, "these foreshocks are indistinguishable from other minor tremors that occur before
small earthquakes", THEN choice A would be defensible... this would imply that after a minor tremor we can expect an earthquake, though we have no idea how small or large it will be. But the passage states that the tremors are "indistinguishable from other minor tremors that occur
without large earthquakes." Therefore, the passage implies that a minor tremor could be followed by a large earthquake, a small earthquake, or
no earthquake at all; for example, the researchers may have recorded HUNDREDS of minor tremors that were NOT followed by an earthquake.
This explanation is supported by the first sentence starting in line 17: "Researchers initially reported success in identifying these possible precursors, but subsequent analyses of their data proved disheartening." In other words, the researchers were initially successful in identifying earthquake precursors; subsequent analyses proved disheartening, implying that the researchers were not successful in identifying precursors that would predict earthquakes.
I hope that helps!
I had the same confusion as stonecold and I went through the explanation which largely makes sense, however, the option talks about them being able to identify when an earthquake is
to occur and not that the earthquake occurs for sure. Wouldn't this make A more defensible?