Self-study
Anne: Halley's Comet, now in a part of its orbit relatively far from the Sun, recently flared brightly enough to be seen by telescope. ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ████████
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Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
Sue concludes that Anne’s position—that it must be unusual for a comet to flare visibly while far from the Sun—is “nonsense.” This is supported by Sue’s claim that such a flare was observed only once merely because comets far from the Sun are not usually observed. The exceptional event was thus closely tracking the specific comet which flared, not necessarily the flare itself.
Describe Method of Reasoning
Sue introduces a new consideration to undermine Anne’s claim that an event only rarely being seen means that the event itself must be rare. Instead, Sue suggests that the event is rarely seen simply because of a lack of observation.
4.
Sue challenges Anne's reasoning by
a
pointing out that ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ █████
Sue doesn’t claim that Anne’s language choices are unsatisfactory at all; their arguments agree in their usage of the term “observed.”
b
drawing attention to ██ █████████████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ██████
Sue doesn’t claim that Anne is making inconsistent claims, only that her claims do not support her conclusion given the new consideration that Sue introduces.
c
presenting evidence that ████████ ███████████ ██████ ████████
Sue does not contradict Anne’s evidence. Rather, she agrees with Anne that Halley’s comet was observed to flare, and just doesn’t comment on Anne’s claim that no other comet had ever been observed to flare so far from the sun.
d
offering an alternative ███████████ ███ ███ ████████ ████ █████
Sue explains the evidence Anne cites about comet flares far from the Sun rarely being observed, by explaining that comets far from the Sun are rarely observed at all. This is an alternative explanation to Anne’s conclusion that these flares must be highly unusual.
e
undermining some of ██████ ████████ █████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████
Sue doesn’t undermine any of Anne’s evidence. Sue appears to just take Anne’s evidence at face value, and simply finds an alternate explanation for it.