Self-study
Critics of a plan to create new building sites from land that currently lies under only 5 meters of water claim that it will reduce the habitat area available to a local subpopulation of dolphins. ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ████ █████ █████████████ ███ ███████ ███ █████████ ███████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author claims that building in 5 meters of water won’t actually reduce the habitat available to local dolphins as critics claim, even though the dolphins always live in water less than 30 feet deep and their habitat is closed off.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes something about the new building sites will prevent them from reducing the dolphin habitat in the area, either because they will not destroy any dolphin habitat or because they will create at least as much new habitat as they disturb.
24.
Which one of the following ████ █████████ █████████ ███ █████████
a
the dolphins’ current ███████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ █ ███████ ██████████ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███
This is irrelevant. The author doesn’t just say the new buildings will leave plenty of space for the dolphins—he claims the new buildings will not reduce their habitat, period.
b
the dolphins do ███ ███████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ████
This implies the new buildings will not be constructed on dolphin habitat, since the building sites have only 5 meters of water.
c
the most serious ██████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ █████████
This is irrelevant. The author doesn’t argue habitat loss is justifiable—he argues the buildings will simply not reduce the amount of dolphin habitat.
d
the average depth ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ██████
This is irrelevant. It doesn’t imply the dolphins avoid areas with just 5 meters of water, so it doesn’t affect the argument.
e
a short distance ████ ███ █████████ ███████ █████ ███ █████ █████ █████ ██ █ █████ ██ ███ ██████
This is irrelevant. It implies there’s an uninhabitable area nearby, not that the building sites are uninhabitable.