Self-study
According to current geological theory, Support the melting of ice at the end of the Ice Age significantly reduced the weight pressing on parts of the earth's crust. ██ █ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ████████ ██ ████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ████████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that ice melting at the end of the last Ice Age contributed to earthquakes in Sweden in that same era. This is because melting ice reduced the weight pressing on the earth’s crust, which caused cracks to form in the earth’s crust.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that cracks in the earth’s crust make earthquakes more likely to happen, and that there wasn't another cause of earthquakes at that time.
The author also assumes that Sweden is situated in a location affected by the cracks, or else that cracks in the earth's crust can cause earthquakes in distant locations.
15.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██████
a
The earth's crust █████ ██ █████ ████████ █████ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ███
We already know that the earth’s crust cracked due to a change in pressure. This doesn't say anything new to strengthen the connection between those cracks and earthquakes.
b
There are various █████ ██ ████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████
This could almost tell us that Sweden was in an area affected by the cracks, but we don't know if these northern European cracks are actually from the ice melting. We also don't know how close they are to Sweden specifically.
c
Evidence of severe ███████████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███ ███ ███ ███ ██ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███████
While this strengthens the correlation between melting ice and earthquakes, the author makes a causal claim. There could be another cause of both Canadian and Swedish earthquakes at that time—we don't know, so this isn't useful.
d
Severe earthquakes are █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ██████████ █████
Cracks in the earth’s crust are the leading cause of earthquakes. This strengthens the causal relationship that the author assumes, by clarifying how cracks from melting ice relate to earthquakes.
e
Asteroid impacts, which ███ █████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███ ███ ████ █████████ █████ ██████ ████████████
This weakens the author’s argument by providing an alternative cause for the phenomenon. Now it's very possible that asteroids, not melting ice, were responsible for the earthquakes.