PT23.S2.Q1

SECTION 1 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 2 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

SECTION 3 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24

SECTION 4 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5

PASSAGE 2
Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13

PASSAGE 3
Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18

PASSAGE 4
Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

PrepTest 23 - Section 2 - Question 1

Question

Explanation

Analytics

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Anita: Support Since 1960 the spotted owl population has declined alarmingly. ██████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ███████████ ███ █████

█████ ███ ███ ███████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ██ █ █████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ████

Method Of Reasoning

Anita’s statements exhibit textbook phenomenon-hypothesis reasoning. She hypothesizes that a certain phenomenon (spotted owls dying) is being caused by something in particular (timber companies).

Jean’s statements exhibit a textbook response to phenomenon-hypothesis reasoning: suggesting an alternative hypothesis. She says the phenomenon (spotted owls dying) isn’t due to Anita’s hypothesized cause (timber companies), but to a different cause (the rival species barred owl).

This question asks us to describe what Jean does. What she does is present an alternative to Anita’s hypothesis. These argument patterns are common enough that you should absolutely aspire to anticipate a near-verbatim version of that answer.

This might sound oversimplistic, but the wrong answers in this question will all be wrong because they describe stuff Jean doesn’t do.

Analysis by MichaelWright

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Jean does which one of ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██████

denies the truth ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ █████████ ████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ███████

Jean doesn’t challenge the fact that timber companies are clearing forests, she challenges the causal link between that circumstance and the phenomenon of spotted owls dying.

challenges Anita's assumption ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ █████ █ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ████████

(B)’s just out here making stuff up. A stimulus matching (B) would have Anita saying something like:

Since 1960 spotted owls have been dying a lot. Therefore, they’re doomed as a species.

But, you know, Anita doesn’t say that. And Jean certainly doesn’t challenge this assumption that Anita doesn’t make.

proposes an alternative ███████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████

This hits the nail on the head. Jean says it’s not Anita’s explanation (timber companies), but a different explanation (rival species) that accounts for the spotted owl’s decline.

argues that Anita's ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████ █ ████ ██████ ████ ██████

Jean does mention a time period (for the last three decades), but not in the context of arguing that [Anita isn’t measuring the spotted owl’s decline over a long enough time period].

Everything inside those brackets is just stuff (D) conjured out of thin air.

suggests that Anita ██████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███████

“The possibility that spotted owls are able to live in forests that are not old-growth forests” doesn’t occur anywhere in Jean’s statements.

Difficulty

Question

98% of people who answer get this correct

This is a low-difficulty question.

CURVE

Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right

25% 120

124

75% 136

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Method of reasoning or descriptive

Stimulus Tags

Causal reasoning

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

160

156

98%

168

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