Self-study
Essayist: Support People once believed that Earth was at the center of the universe, and that, therefore, Earth and its inhabitants were important. ██ ███ ████ ████ █████ ████████ ██████ █ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ██ █████████ █████████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████ █████████ ███ ██████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The essayist concludes that neither Earth nor anything that lives on it is important. People used to think Earth (and its inhabitants) was important because they mistakenly believed Earth was at the center of the universe. But since we now know that it’s not, the essayist argues that their belief in Earth's importance is also mistaken.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The flaw is that the argument confuses lack of support for a conclusion with the conclusion being false. The author points out that the belief that the Earth was the center of the universe is false. But even though other people concluded the Earth was important based on this belief, the fact this belief is false doesn't guarantee the Earth is not important. Undermining one piece of support for a claim does not prove the claim to be false.
12.
A flaw in the essayist's ████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████
a
presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ████████
The argument doesn’t make any claim about what’s necessary for having good reason to believe something. If you like this answer, you're probably thinking that it says the author presumes that if there isn't a good reason to believe something, then it's not true. But that's not what the answer says.
b
neglects to consider ████ █ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ████ ████ ████
This describes what the essayist doesn’t account for. People can hold a true belief on the basis of a questionable reason, so merely pointing out that their reason for believing that Earth is important was wrong doesn’t prove that Earth isn’t important.
c
fails to consider ████ █████ ███ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ████████████ █ ████ █████████
The only "true statement" identified in the stimulus is that Earth revolves around a star. All that matters for the argument is that this statement is true, not whether people have reason to disbelieve it or not.
d
overlooks the fact ████ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████
Similar to (E), this is irrelevant. The argument concludes that it’s wrong to believe that Earth is important. It doesn’t matter whether or not people’s opinions on that issue change over time.
e
neglects the fact ████ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████
Similar to (D), this doesn’t matter. The argument concludes that it’s wrong to believe that Earth is important. Whether or not different cultures have different opinions on that issue is irrelevant.