PT132.S3.P2.Q11

PrepTest 132 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 11

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P1

A vigorous debate in astronomy centers on an epoch in planetary history that was first identified by analysis of rock samples obtained in lunar missions. ██████████ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ██ █ ████████ ███████████ ██ ██████ █████████████ ████ ███████ █████ █████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ███████████ ████ ████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ██████ █ ██████████ ████ ████████ ████████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████████ █████

Phenomenon · Late heavy bombardment
4 billion years ago, Moon and Earth were both massively bombarded with projectiles.
P2

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Hypothesis 1 · Large asteroid or comet disintegration
Evidence: size of lunar craters is large, suggests a large asteroid or comet broke apart and bombarded inner solar system with debris.
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Hypothesis 2 · "LHB" is just a part of an even longer period of bombardment
"LHB" is part of a continuous bombardment that lasted billions of years. "LHB" just happened to be last and hence obliterated evidence of earlier impacts.
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Hypothesis 3 · LHB only affected Earth-Moon system
Contra hypothesis 1 which claims that LHB affected entire inner solar system (Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury).
P3

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Evidence Supporting Hypothesis 1 · Mars rock found on Earth
Mars rock dates to same time as LHB, suggesting that Mars experienced bombardment too
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Conclusion · LHB wasn't just an Earth-Moon phenomenon
At least Mars experienced it too.
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Further Research · To decide between the different hypotheses
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Show answer
11.

The author implies that all ███████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███ █████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████

a

the approximate duration ██ ███ ███

The three hypotheses do not agree about the approximate duration of the LHB. Hypothesis 1 is silent on the topic of duration, Hypothesis 2 claims that the LHB would have lasted billions of years, and according to Hypothesis 3, the duration was relatively brief.

7%
b

the origin of ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ███

Hypothesis 1 says that the origin of the debris was an asteroid or comet orbiting the Sun, Hypothesis 3 says that the debris came from a body specifically within the Earth-Moon system, and Hypothesis 2 denies that there was some sort of cataclysmic event that triggered the debris, instead citing a period of billions of years of continuing heavy bombardment throughout the inner solar system.

11%
c

the idea that █████████ █████████ █████████████ █████ ███ ███

All three hypotheses agree that the LHB eventually ended. The LHB is what caused the major craters, so since all of the hypotheses discussed by the author agree that the LHB ended, they would agree that cratering decreased significantly after the LHB.

61%
d

the idea that ███ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ █████ ███

We know that life could not have survived until after the LHB. The passage is silent on what happened with regards to life before the LHB. Thus, the passage does not suggest that the author believes that all three hypotheses agree with (D), because we just don’t know what the hypotheses say about this claim.

14%
e

the approximate amount ██ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ███

We can’t say that the author implies that all three hypotheses agree with this claim. The hypotheses don’t specifically talk about the amount of debris involved. We do know that Hypothesis 3 says that the debris from the LHB would have been swept up quickly, and Hypothesis 2 says that the LHB would have lasted billions of years, so at least these two hypotheses likely disagree on the amount of debris involved.

7%

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