Self-paced
The authors of a recent article examined warnings of an impending wave of extinctions of animal species within the next 100 years. █████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ██ █████ █████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that, contrary to the recent article, the rate of animal extinctions is indeed accelerating. She supports this hypothesis with the observation that more fish species have gone extinct since 1950 than went extinct between 1900-1950.
16.
The answer to which one ██ ███ █████████ █████████ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Were the fish ███████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████████████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███████████
If yes, then there’s no reason to conclude that the overall rate of animal extinctions is increasing. If no, then the data on fish suggest more strongly that extinction is accelerating for other animals, too.
b
How numerous were ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████ █████
Irrelevant—the argument isn’t concerned with the population dynamics of any individual species. The argument is focused solely on whether or not populations have gone completely extinct, and how the total number of extinctions is changing over time.
c
Did any of ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████
Irrelevant—the origins of those fishes have no bearing on the extinction numbers being reported.
d
What proportion of █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ███ █████████
Irrelevant—the argument isn’t concerned with the population dynamics of any individual species. The argument is focused solely on whether or not populations have gone extinct, and how the number of extinctions is changing over time.
e
Were any of ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ████████████ ██████████
Irrelevant—the argument isn’t concerned with which fish species went extinct or what those species might have been used for. The argument is focused solely on the number of extinctions and how that number is changing over time.