Self-study
Conclusion Those who claim that governments should not continue to devote resources to space exploration are wrong. ████████ ████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████████ ██ █████ ████████████ ████ ██████ ████████████ ████ ████ █ ██████████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████████ █████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ██████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ████████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████████
Summary
The author concludes that people are wrong in claiming that governments should stop funding space exploration. As support, she says that many modern technologies are unexpected consequences of space exploration, and without government funding, society might’ve missed these benefits.
Notable Assumptions
The author implies that governments should continue funding space exploration, but her premises never establish when governments should or should not fund something. She assumes that, since funding has led to unexpected benefits, funding should be continued into the future.
Underlying her argument is the principle that if a government-funded program has brought unexpected benefits in the past, then governments should continue funding that program.
18.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██████
a
Governments should not ██ █████████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ████ ███████
The author thinks governments should keep funding the projects because of their unexpected consequences that do benefit most people. Her argument is about unexpected consequences, not intended ones. Also, we don’t know that anyone’s preventing governments from funding the programs.
b
One can never █████████████ ███ ██████████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ █████████ █████████████ █████████████
The author’s conclusion isn’t about underestimating the benefits of funding space exploration. Instead, she concludes that because of their unexpected beneficial consequences, space exploration programs should continue to be funded.
c
The less practical ███ ████ ██ █ ████████████████████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ████ ████████
We don’t know whether the goal of space exploration is practical or not. So even if (C) is true, it doesn’t underlie the argument that governments should keep funding space exploration.
d
Governments should continue ██ ███████ █████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██████████ █████████
Space exploration has, in the past, produced unintended (or unexpected) benefits. So the principle that governments should continue funding projects that have produced unintended benefits does underlie the argument that governments should continue funding space exploration.
e
In attempting to ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ █████████ █████████████ █████████████
We don’t know whether space exploration is an ambitious technological undertaking. Even if it is, the author says governments should continue funding it because of its unexpected consequences, not in order to advance the welfare of society.