PrepTest 156 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 13

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Passage A is adapted from a book review by physicist Freeman Dyson. ███████ █ ██ ███████ ████ █ ████████ ██ ███ ███████

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Intro topic · Two views of role of science in knowledge

Reductionists think all knowledge is reducible to science. Traditionalists think science is just one out of many kinds of knowledge. Dyson is a traditionalist.

Application of two views · Two takes on paranormal phenomena

Scientific attempts to study paranormal phenomena have failed. Skeptics think this means paranormal phenomena doesn’t exist. Dyson thinks they can still exist.

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Support for A's Perspective · Anecdotal evidence of paranormal phenomena

There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence of paranormal phenomena. Although these can’t be reproduced under controlled conditions, there are good reasons why that’s not possible.

Support for A's perspective · Paranormal phenomena and science may be complementary

Paranormal phenomena and science may be complementary, meaning that they might both be valid, but can’t be observed at the same time.

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Description of A's perspective · Recap of Dyson's view in ridiculing way

B's perspective · Dyson's wrong

Experiments show that paranormal phenomena doesn't exist.

Response to complementarity · Doesn't apply to paranormal activity

Passage Style

13.

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Question Type

Author’s perspective

Implied

The correct answer will be something that Passage B is more likely to agree with than Passage A. That means there should be support for the correct answer in Passage B, but no support in Passage A. It’s possible Passage A disagrees with the answer, but it doesn’t have to. It just has to provide no support for that answer.

Technically it’s possible that there’s some small amount of support for the answer in Passage A, but there’s stronger support in Passage B. This possibility, however, is not something that we should actually consider unless we need to. The correct answer is almost certainly going to involve no support (or anti-support) in Passage A, and at least some support in Passage B.

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There is no support for this in Passage B. In fact, Passage B would disagree with (A), because it believes the fact scientific procedures have not proven paranormal phenomena shows that paranormal phenomena does not exist. So, Passage B would not believe that there could be phenomena that’s never discovered by science.

Also, Passage A agrees with (A) – paranormal phenomena might exist without being discoverable by science. This is another reason to eliminate the answer.

There are numerous ███████ ██████ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ██████████ ██████████

Passage A agrees with this. So we can’t say that Passage B is more likely to agree with this than Passage A, because Passage A already 100% agrees with it. That’s enough to eliminate this answer; we don’t need to concern ourselves with whether Passage B also agrees with (B).

If you did want to think about Passage B, however, there isn’t support for (B). Although Passage B refers to “anecdotal evidence” in the first sentence, that doesn’t reveal whether Passage B believes there are “numerous” reports or what’s in those reports.

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There’s no support for (C) in Passage B. So we can’t say that Passage B is more likely to believe this than Passage A.

Scientific investigation has ████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ███ █████

Both Passage A and Passage B agree with this. So, we can’t say Passage B is more likely to agree than Passage A.

This might be a tempting answer because Passage A believes that paranormal phenomena might exist. But be clear about the reason – Passage A never said that science has provided evidence of such phenomena. In fact, Passage A acknowledges that science has not provided evidence. Passage A tries to explain why science might not be able to capture paranormal phenomena, even if that phenomena does exist.

52%

The same general ███████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████████

This might be a tough answer to pick, because Passage B never uses the word “physics.” However, the “general methods that are used in physics” is a reference to scientific methods. And, there is support in Passage B that these methods are appropriate for studying all human behavior. Although Passage B doesn’t refer to “all” human behavior, there is no suggestion in Passage B that its commitment to the scientific method is limited to only certain kinds of human behavior.

Passage A disagrees with (E), because it argues that science might not be an appropriate method for investigating paranormal phenomena (which includes some kinds of alleged human behavior, such as mind-reading).

Even if you don’t like (E), because you think the support provided for it in Passage B is shaky, you should still pick this answer, because it’s the only one that Passage A disagrees with. Passage A agrees with all the other answers. So, you don’t have any basis to say that Passage B is more likely to agree with those other answers than Passage A. Don’t expect correct answers to feel perfect.

43%

PrepTest 156 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 13

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