Self-study
People have long been fascinated by the paranormal. ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ███████████ ████ ████████████ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ███ ████████████ ██████ █████ ███████ █████ █████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ████████████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████ █████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ████████████ ████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ███████████ █████ ██ ██████████████
Structure: Counter-Argument
The author provides some context about research into telepathy: though many researchers have looked into it over the years, "conclusive evidence" of telepathy hasn't been found. Then the author tells us about some people who believe there must be "something in it" — presumably, that telepathy exists — based on some research seemingly supporting that view. The author counters that other plausible explanations can be offered for these cases, and that it is therefore "premature" to conclude that telepathy is an alternative means of communication.
Analysis: Method of Reasoning
The author presents some people's belief that telepathy must exist, based on some research suggesting that it does. The author rejects this conclusion as "premature," because that research isn't "conclusive" — remember that, according to the second sentence, no conclusive evidence for telepathy has been found — and because there are other explanations for many of the cases in such research. Note that the author isn't claiming that telepathy definitely does not exist, only that the evidence is currently insufficient to state that it does, as these other people believe.
12.
In the passage, the author
a
supports the conclusion ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ████████ ████
Correct. The author doesn't support his conclusion by pointing to other research suggesting that telepathy does not exist. Instead, he simply points out that the research apparently supporting the opposite view can often be explained without appealing to telepathy. Because the evidence is not conclusive, the author concludes that it would be "premature" to state that telepathy exists as an alternative mode of communication.
b
supports the conclusion ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███████████
Incorrect. Remember that the author concludes that it would be premature to claim that telepathy is an alternative mode of communication. It's hard to think what kind of experiments would show that it is too soon to conclude something exists — but in any case, the author doesn't describe any specific experiments either supporting or undermining the idea that telepathy exists.
c
supports the conclusion ██ ████████████████ ████ █ ████████ █████ ██ ████████
Incorrect. The author never mentions a specific piece of evidence, let alone generalizes from one. His argument is concerned with showing that the evidence (which we aren't given in detail) for other people's beliefs is insufficient.
d
draws a conclusion ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████████
Incorrect. We know from the premises that the research cited by these other people is not "conclusive" to show that telepathy exists, and since other explanations can be given for the research that suggests that it does, it seems reasonable to conclude that it is too soon to state that telepathy is an alternative mode of communication. The premises certainly support the author's conclusion.
e
rephrases the conclusion ███████ ████████ ███ ███████ ███ ██
Incorrect. The conclusion appears in the last sentence: "Therefore, it is premature to conclude that telepathy is an alternative means of communication." This is supported by the premise immediately preceding it (that other explanations can be offered for research suggesting telepathy exists), and doesn't rephrase anything that appeared earlier in the stimulus.