PrepTest 17 - Section 1 - Question 15 | Explanation & Discussion

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Support Extinction is the way of nature. ██████████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ████████████ ███ ██ ███████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ███ █████ ████████ ███████████

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position

The author argues against other people's argument that recent extinctions have been caused by the effects of human technology on the environment. Based on the claim that "extinction is the way of nature," and that more than half of the species that have ever existed went extinct before humans developed any tools, the author concludes that, in fact, species that have gone extinct in modern times "would have gone extinct" by now anyway, regardless of humans having technology.

15.

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

Question Type

Flaw or descriptive weakening

Hopefully it's clear that the author's premises about extinction being a natural phenomenon that occurred even before humans developed tools simply don't support the author's claim that, therefore, technology cannot be blamed for more recent extinctions. You can think of this as a flawed analogy to a past situation: just because there were extinctions in the past, before tools existed, doesn't imply that those extinctions are analogous to the more recent ones, let alone that the same specific species that have gone extinct because of technology would have gone extinct even without technology.

The author mistakenly ███████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████████

Incorrect. The author's claim is not that technology has caused no environmental harm, just that the environmental harm (if any) caused by technology cannot be blamed for more recent extinctions.

The author ignores ███ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ███████████

Incorrect. The author's argument isn't about species that are "in danger of" extinction.

The author fails ██ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████████

Incorrect. The existence of species that have not yet been identified isn't relevant to the argument.

The author cites ██████████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███████

Incorrect. This isn't a flaw in the argument: the author doesn't have to cite opposing evidence for the argument to work. We don't even know if any scientists disagree with this claim; even if they did, we're not in a position to say who's right. At best, (D) only affects one of the premises, whereas we're looking for a flaw in the author's reasoning — i.e., the connection between the premises and the conclusion.

The author provides ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███████████

Correct. (E) points out a major gap between the premises and the conclusion. While the premises support the claim that some species would have gone extinct even in the absence of human technology, there is no support in the argument for the claim that the species that have gone extinct in modern times are the same specific species that would have gone extinct even without technology.

88%

PrepTest 17 - Section 1 - Question 15

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