romil666
Bunuel
Scientist: All other things being equal, the intensity of heat increases as the distance from the heat source decreases. Knowing this, most people conclude that the Earth`s seasons are caused by the Earth`s changing distance from the sun. In other words, winter occurs when the Earth is far from the sun, and summer occurs when the earth is close to the sun. However, we know that as North America experiences summer, South America experiences winter, even though the difference in the continents' distance to the sun is negligible. Therefore, the earth`s changing distance from the sun does not cause the seasons.
In the argument, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
A. The first describes a belief to which the scientist subscribes; the second is evidence in support of this belief.
B. The first describes a common belief that the scientist later deems to be ill conceived; the second is evidence against this belief.
C. The first is a statement presented in support of the scientist`s final conclusion; the second is the scientist`s conclusion.
D. The first describes a commonly held belief that is contrary to the scientist`s final conclusion; the second is evidence in support of this belief.
E. The first describes a common belief that follows logically from the statement before it; the second is factual information that the scientist deems to be irrelevant to her argument.
Dear Experts,
AndrewN ,
DmitryFarber ,
VeritasKarishma ,
I was able to narrow it down to Options B and E. Though I selected the right option B, the second part of option E gave me a hard time
'the second is factual information that the scientist deems to be irrelevant to her
argument . Is the word 'argument' means the whole CR argument or just the conclusion (Therefore, the earth`s changing distance from the sun does not cause the seasons) made by the scientist? What should I consider?
Regards,
Romil
Hello, Romil. Good question. The words
argument and
conclusion are sometimes used interchangeably in CR questions and answer choices. Sure, a premise plays an integral role in an argument, but it is not seen as the argument itself. A good idea for boldface questions in general is to see which answers you can disqualify based on one half or the other within the answer choices. If you are unsure about something but cannot disprove the first or the second half of any given answer, just place that option on hold while you assess the others. Such a strategy can make the difference between the person who builds off of positive momentum and answers efficiently and another person who seeks to qualify that one answer and wastes time and energy in that pursuit. To illustrate, the following is how I disqualified answers to this question, one by one:
Quote:
A. The first describes a belief to which the scientist subscribes
I did not bother considering this one beyond the semicolon, since I knew it was already inaccurate. The scientist goes against the commonly held belief.
Quote:
B. The first describes a common belief that the scientist later deems to be ill conceived; the second is evidence against this belief.
Looks fine. The first is what the scientist ends up arguing against, while the second is used to buttress the conclusion at the end. Leave this be.
Quote:
C. The first is a statement presented in support of the scientist`s final conclusion; the second is the scientist`s conclusion.
I did not feel great about the first part, but I did not write off the answer in the same way I had (A), so I looked at the second half. The conclusion definitely follows the
therefore, so, with two reasons to doubt this answer, I ditched it.
Quote:
D. The first describes a commonly held belief that is contrary to the scientist`s final conclusion; the second is evidence in support of this belief.
I took a few seconds to make sure I understood exactly what
this belief referred to, the belief of the scientist or that of the general populace. The only
belief mentioned in the answer choice belongs to
most people from the passage. A
conclusion is more definitive. (A
hypothesis might fall more into a grey area.) Since the second does
not support the first, I saw off this answer choice.
Quote:
E. The first describes a common belief that follows logically from the statement before it; the second is factual information that the scientist deems to be irrelevant to her argument.
Again, the first part checks out. But the second says that that second boldface is
irrelevant to the argument
the scientist (I guess a female one, although that was not brought up in the passage) herself puts forth, and that cannot be correct. When you see
therefore in the final line of the passage, you understand that a conclusion is about to follow in some capacity (even if some conclusions contain conditional statements), and you also understand that the information that preceded the conclusion marker justifies the presence of that transition (again,
therefore). The argument adopts a patent premise-conclusion structure in those last two lines, and that makes the second boldface quite relevant to the argument the scientist champions.
So, how could you tease apart (B) and (E) if you could not understand one choice or the other? I teach my students to work from a place of comfort. If, say, (E) gave you trouble, then work with the other option instead. If you cannot find a weakness, a compelling reason to doubt its correctness, then choose it; if you do harbor doubts, then go with the unknown, resting assured that you have found flaws in all the other choices. This is the power of deductive reasoning, and again, adopting such an approach can help you navigate these types of questions much easier and more proficiently.
I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me.
- Andrew