Self-study
Astronomer: Proponents of the hypothesis that life evolved extraterrestrially and drifted here in spores point out that, 3.8 billion years ago, Earth was bombarded by meteorites that would have destroyed any life already here. ███ ███ ███████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ █████ █████████ ███ █████████ █████████████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ █████ █████████ █████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████████████████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ █████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author concludes that there is good reason to regard as false the view that life evolved outside of Earth and drifted to Earth on spores. This is based on the fact that proponents of this view have not offered positive support for their view. Rather, they offer only arguments against the view that life evolved on Earth.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that the proponents’ failure to provide evidence for their theory constitutes a reason to think their view is false. This overlooks the fact that their view can be true, despite the proponents’ failure to offer evidence for it.
9.
The reasoning in the astronomer's ████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████
a
concludes, simply because █████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ██ █ ███████████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ██████████
The author thinks the fact proponents haven’t offered evidence in favor of their view constitutes a reason to think their view is false.
b
fails to justify ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███████████
The author doesn’t claim that the proponents’ view is “inherently” implausible. The author’s reasoning is based on the fact proponents haven’t offered evidence for it.
c
reasons that a ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███████ █████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ██ ████
The author doesn’t point out another hypothesis that is “equally likely” to be true.
d
attempts to derive █ ██████████ ████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ██
The author’s premises do not contradict the conclusion. The premises establish that the proponents haven’t offered evidence for their view. This doesn’t contradict the claim that the proponents’ view is false.
e
grants the truth ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ███ ████████
The author doesn’t accept the claims of the proponents as true. He simply describes those claims in the first half of the stimulus. But the author then rejects the proponents’ hypothesis because they haven’t offered positive evidence for it.