Self-study
The authors of a recent article examined warnings of an impending wave of extinctions of animal species within the next 100 years. █████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ██ █████ █████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The authors of a recent article were incorrect in claiming that there’s no evidence of increased animal extinction; in other words, the conclusion is that there is evidence of increased animal extinction. This position is supported by data on North American fish that shows increased extinction.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is the author’s disagreement with the article authors: “They are wrong.”
15.
Which one of the following ██ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████████
a
There is evidence ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ █████████████
This accurately rephrases the argument’s conclusion. (A) is another way of saying that the author disagrees with the claim that there’s no evidence of an accelerating extinction rate.
b
The future rate ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████████ █████████
The author doesn’t make this claim. Whether a future extinction rate can be determined isn’t discussed—the dispute is over whether there’s evidence for the rate having increased.
c
The rate of ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ █████ █████████
The argument is not designed to support this claim. While this might be taken as an assumption the author makes, nothing in the argument gives us a reason to believe that the North American fish extinction rate is representative.
d
Forty species and ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
This isn’t supported by the argument. The author states this fact to demonstrate the increasing fish extinction rate (which supports the conclusion), but nothing provides support for the statistic of fish extinctions.
e
A substantial number ██ ████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████████
The argument isn’t concerned with how many fish species are likely to go extinct soon—fish are just used as an example to demonstrate an increase in extinction rates.