Self-study
Support The more sunlight our planet reflects back into space, the cooler the global atmosphere tends to become. ████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that if more of Earth’s surface area is covered with snow and ice, the global atmosphere will probably become cooler. This is supported by the observations that snow and ice reflect more sunlight into space than ocean or land, and the atmosphere becomes cooler when more sunlight is reflected into space.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that increased snow and ice coverage on Earth will not have other effects that counteract the cooling caused by greater sunlight reflection.
10.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████
a
Low atmospheric temperatures ███ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ █████
This is irrelevant. The author is only concerned with the effect that more snow and ice cover on Earth would have on the global atmosphere; it doesn’t matter where that snow comes from.
b
Other factors besides ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████████
Without more information about these factors, we don’t know whether and how they would affect the global atmospheric temperature if there was more snow and ice coverage, so this is irrelevant.
c
Ocean water and ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ███████████
This strengthens by providing an additional mechanism by which higher snow and ice cover on Earth would cool down the global atmosphere—that is, by reducing the area of atmosphere-warming ocean water and land.
d
The atmosphere derives ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███
This is irrelevant, since it doesn’t provide any additional information about the effect of snow and ice on the global atmospheric temperature.
e
Lighter-colored soil reflects ████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ██████████████ █████
The argument only relies on the claim that snow and ice reflect more sunlight than land of any kind does, so comparing the reflectiveness of different types of land doesn’t make much difference—it’s just irrelevant.