Self-study
Over the last five years, every new major alternative-energy initiative that initially was promised government funding has since seen that funding severely curtailed. ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ █████ ██ █████ █████████ █████████ ███ █████ █████████ █████ █████ ████████████ ████ ████ ██ █ █████ ██ ██████████ ██████████████████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ███ █████████████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ██████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that large corporations’ actions to discourage alternative-energy projects have likely influenced the government’s decisions to curtail funding of alternative-energy projects. This is based on the fact that large corporations have made a point to discourage alternative-energy projects.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that there’s no other explanation for the government’s decisions to curtail funding for the alternative-energy projects besides large corporations’ actions.
6.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ██████
a
For the past ███ ████████ ████ ██████████████████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████████ ████████
This doesn’t shed light on the cause of the lack of government funding. We already know that major alternative-energy intiatives have had government funding curtailed. The issue is whether this is due to large corporations’ actions.
b
The funding initially █████████ ███ █ ██████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ███████ █████████
But, is the decision to cut funding to these projects a result of corporations’ actions, or something else? (B) doesn’t help to eliminate other explanations or to affirm the author’s explanation.
c
The only research ████████ █████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ █████████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ████████████ ████ ████ ██ █ █████ ██ ███████████
This eliminates an alternate explanation that the government was simply cutting funding across the board. (C) establishes a closer connection between having funding cut and corporations’ discouragement.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
d
Some projects encouraged ██ █████ ████████████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██████
The author never suggested that the government does whatever corporations want. Some projects encouraged by corporations may have had funding cut. That doesn’t impact whether other projects had funding cut because corporations discouraged those projects.
e
All large corporations ████ ████ ██ █ █████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████ ██ █████████
We already know large corporations have discouraged alternative-energy projects. The issue is whether the government’s decision to cut funding to those projects results from the corporations’ actions. (E) doesn’t help affirm that explanation or eliminate other explanations.