Self-study
The chances that tropical storms will develop in a given area increase whenever the temperature of a large body of water in that area exceeds 26 degrees Celsius to a depth of about 60 meters. ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ █████████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ████████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ █ █████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ██████
Summary
If the temperature of a large body of water exceeds 26 degrees Celsius to a depth of about 60 meters, the chances increase that a tropical storm will develop. If the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere increases, all of Earth’s waters will rise, resulting in a greater number than today of large bodies of water where the temperature exceeds 26 degrees Celsius to a depth of 60 meters.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
If the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere increases, the likelihood that tropical storms develop in any given area on Earth will increase.
5.
The statements above, if true, ████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████
a
There are likely ██ ██ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ █████████ ██ █████████
This is strongly supported because we can connect the fact of more carbon dioxide increasing the likelihood of exceeding 26 degrees to a 60 meter depth with the fact of that temperature and depth combination resulting in a higher likelihood of tropical storms.
b
Tropical storms can █████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████
This is unsupported because we aren’t given any conditional statement saying that tropical storms only occur at this temperature range. Furthermore, the temperature range given refers to the water temperature, not the air temperature.
c
The number of █████ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ████████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ █ █████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ████
This is unsupported because we don’t know if there was ever a time in Earth’s history where carbon dioxide levels were higher than today, or if another factor besides carbon dioxide ever raised the temperatures of Earth’s waters in the past.
d
The ferocity of ████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████
This is unsupported because the stimulus only gives us information on the likelihood of tropical storms, not the severity of those storms.
e
Any increase in ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ █████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██ █████
This is unsupported because the stimulus indicates that the causality moves from carbon dioxide leading to higher ocean temperatures rather than the higher temperatures causing more carbon dioxide.