PT131.S3.Q1

PrepTest 131 - Section 3 - Question 1

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New technologies that promise to extend life and decrease pain involve innovations that require extensive scientific research. ██████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████ ███████████ █████████ █████████ ██████████ ████████ ████ ███████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ███████ ████████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ███ █████████████

Analysis: Surprising Phenomenon

The author tells us that it is "very risky" to invest in technologies that promise to extend life and decrease pain, because those technologies rely on extensive scientific research, and therefore require large amounts of capital with a low probability of any financial return. Even so — and this is the surprising phenomenon we want to explain — some people are willing to invest in these technologies.

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1.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ █████

a

When investments in ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███████████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████████████
Correct. This is different from what we pre-phrased, but it provides another potential motivation for people investing in these technologies. Even though it's risky to invest in these technologies, as the stimulus says, there is a chance of a very high reward, which might make some people willing to take the higher risk of investing in these technologies.
97%
b

A large variety ██ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████
Incorrect. Just because "a large variety" of such technologies have been developed in the last decade doesn't make investing in them any less risky or explain why some people are still willing to invest in them.
1%
c

The development of ███████ ███ ████████████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████ ████████████ ███████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ███████
Incorrect. Knowing that investing in certain other technologies is risky for the same reasons doesn't clarify why people are willing to invest in the life-extension and pain-reduction technologies.
1%
d

Some investments that █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████████ █████ █████████ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███████
Incorrect. As the stimulus tells us, these particular investments don't seem likely to provide reasonably large financial return to begin with. So (D) doesn't apply to the situation in the stimulus.
0%
e

The scientific research █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ██ ███████ █████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████
Incorrect. We don't know if investors care whether this research will provide "greater understanding of the natural world" or not, so (E) doesn't clarify why people are willing to invest in these technologies.
1%

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