PT136.S1.P4.Q25

PrepTest 136 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 25

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P1

Advances in scientific understanding often do not build directly or smoothly in response to the data that are amassed, and in retrospect, after a major revision of theory, it may seem strange that a crucial hypothesis was long overlooked. ███

Intro to Topic · Scientific progress is not linear; crucial idea are sometimes overlooked
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Example · Splitting the nucleus of an atom
Between 1934 to 1939, scientists split the atom without recognizing that they had done so.
P2

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Theory · Atoms can be split
It was known that in theory atoms could be split.
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Experiment · Neutron-bombardment was not intended to split the atom
Scientists did not expect that to happen.
P3

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Experimental Results · Meitner and Fermi's experiment produced "puzzling" substances
They didn't know what the substances were (mainly) because they weren't expecting to have split uranium.
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Experimental Results · Hahn identified substances as barium and technetium
Barium and technetium's protons and neutrons add up to the protons and neutrons of uranium.
P4

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Hypothesis · Nuclear fission occurred
Meitner finally realized that they had achieved nuclear fission.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
Show answer
25.

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

a

the results of ███████████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ███████ ████ ███ ████

This best captures the meaning of the phrase, because (A) describes the long-existing evidence that demonstrates Meitner’s insight. Meitner’s insight was that neutron bombardment involved splitting uranium atoms. These experiments had been occuring since 1934.

68%
b

the results of ███████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████

This is too narrow, because the author asserts in the last line that the relevant evidence “had been present for some time, lacking mainly the right conceptual link.” By this phrase, the author indicates that the relevant data had been around for a relatively long time. This connects back to the author’s description in P1 of neutron bombardment experiments since 1934. So it wouldn’t make sense for “the relevant evidence” to refer to Meitner’s own experiments in 1938. This would ignore the experiments described in P1 and would not be a particularly long time before Meitner’s insight.

7%
c

the clear chemical ████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ █████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███████

This is too narrow, because the author asserts in the last line that the relevant evidence “had been present for some time, lacking mainly the right conceptual link.” By this phrase, the author indicates that the relevant data had been around for a relatively long time. This connects back to the author’s description in P1 of neutron bombardment experiments since 1934. So it wouldn’t make sense for “the relevant evidence” to refer to Hahn’s experiment. This would ignore the experiments described in P1 and would not be a particularly long time before Meitner’s insight.

8%
d

the fact that ███ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ █ ███████ ███████

This is too narrow, because the author asserts in the last line that the relevant evidence “had been present for some time, lacking mainly the right conceptual link.” By this phrase, the author indicates that the relevant data had been around for a relatively long time. This connects back to the author’s description in P1 of neutron bombardment experiments since 1934. So it wouldn’t make sense for “the relevant evidence” to refer some narrow aspect of Hahn’s experiment, as (D) describes. This would ignore the experiments described in P1 and would not be a particularly long time before Meitner’s insight.

10%
e

the fact that ███████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████████ ███ ██ ████

The “relevant evidence” would, at a minimum, be evidence that supports Meitner’s insight that neutron bombardment involved splitting the uranium atoms. So what matters is that uranium could be split from neutron bombardment. But the lack of identification of the chemical products produced by neutron bombardment isn’t evidence that atoms can be split. In any case, (E) also ignores the relationship between “the relevant evidence” and the experiments described in P1. The evidence described in the last line “had been present for some time,” so it must refer to the long-existing evidence of atom-splitting.

6%

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