PT121.S2.P3.Q19

PrepTest 121 - Section 2 - Passage 3 - Question 19

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P1

According to the theory of gravitation, every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle with a force that increases as either the mass of the particles increases, or their proximity to one another increases, or both. ███████████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████ █████████ ███

Theory of gravitation · Gravity is believed to have shaped the structure of the universe
Gravity = every particle of matter attracts every other particle based on the mass of particles and how close they are to each other
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Puzzling phenomenon · 90% of the universe seems to be missing
The observable mass isn't enough to explain the universe.
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Cosmologists' hypothesis · Dark matter
P2

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Elaborate on dark matter · Dark matter might be neutrinos
But, neutrinos have been assumed to have no mass. So, how could they be the dark matter that helps the universe take its shape? (Come back to this paragraph for details of exactly what neutrinos are.)
P3

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Elaborate on dark matter · Neutrinos do have mass, so they can, in theory, be dark matter
Research shows that neutrinos can oscillate. And oscillation requires mass. (Come back to this paragraph for details of exactly what oscillation is.)
P4

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Limits of neutrinos as dark matter · Neutrinos are at most about 20% of dark matter
There must be other particles that make up the rest of dark matter. Cosmologists still find the neutrino theory of dark matter helpful.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
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19.

The passage states each of ███ █████████ ███████

a

There are more █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ██████████████

Not stated. You might think (A) is stated because we’re told that neutrinos are “the most numerous kind of particle in the universe.” But this doesn’t imply that there are more neutrinos than non-neutrinos. For example, neutrinos could be 20% of the universe, and there could be 9 other particles that each constitute 10% of the universe. This is how neutrinos could be the “most numerous kind of particle” — meaning that there are more neutrinos than any other individual kind of particle — but still less than 50% of the overall number of particles in the universe. In other words, neutrinos could be a plurality of particles in the universe, not a majority.

79%
b

Observable matter cannot █████ ██████ █████████████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████

Stated.

3%
c

Scientific experiments support ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████████

Stated.

5%
d

Neutrinos likely cannot ███████ ███ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ █████

Stated.

3%
e

Dark matter may ███████ ███ █ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████████ ██████

Stated.

9%

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