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Explanations

PT9.S3.Q16

SECTION 1 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6

PASSAGE 2
Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13

PASSAGE 3
Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20

PASSAGE 4
Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26 Question 27

SECTION 2 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 3 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 4 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

PrepTest 9 - Section 3 - Question 16

Question

Explanation

Analytics

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The ancient Romans understood the principles of water power very well, and in some outlying parts of their empire they made extensive and excellent use of water as an energy source. ████ █████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ███████

Distilling The Tension

Resolve, reconcile, or explain questions present us two facts that exist in tension, then ask us to provide an additional fact that explains how they could both be true. In this stimulus, the two facts in tension are:

(Context) The Romans knew water power was great.
Fact 1: They used it a lot in the boonies.
Fact 2: They didn't use it in big cities.

Tension: If water power is so great and usable in the boonies, why aren't the Romans using it in big cities?

Anticipation: We need some difference between the boonies and the city. Perhaps water power is easier/harder to implement in the boonies/city because [reason]. Perhaps [better alternatives] are absent/present in the boonies/city.

Analysis by MichaelWright

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16.

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

The ancient Romans ████ █████ ██ ████████████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████ █████ █████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ ████████████ ██████████

This deepens the mystery of Fact 2 – the Romans had ready access to water in their big cities, so why didn't they use it for power?

In the areas ██ █████ █████ █████ ███ ███ █████ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ███ ████████████ █████████ ████ ████████ ██████████

This still leaves the Romans' decision not to use water power in their cities unexplained. A bit of seasonal variation isn't an obvious dealbreaker, especially since the water flow was "substantial throughout the year."

Water power was ██████████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████████ █████████

Water power was vulnerable to sabotage, you say? That's a reason not to use water power anywhere. But repairing it was easy, you say? That's a reason to use it everywhere.

In most areas ██ █████ ███ ███ ██ █████ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ██████ ████ ███████████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ██ █████

(D) would be much more promising if it asserted that traditional sources of energy were better in some way, especially in a way that only applies in the city.

Just saying they used other sources of energy, though, doesn't add anything.

In heavily populated █████ ███ ████████████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ █████████ █████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ███████████

This provides a reason why adding water to big cities is harder/worse than adding it in the boonies.

Difficulty

Question

65% of people who answer get this correct

This is a difficult question.

CURVE

Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right

25% 147

157

75% 167

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Resolve reconcile or explain

Stems that ask us to resolve an apparent paradox, reconcile two seemingly inconsistent facts, or explain a counterintuitive phenomenon presented in the stimulus.

Stimulus Tags

Causal reasoning

Stimuli that feature the logic of causation (e.g. phenomenon-hypothesis, causal chain, experiments).

Phenomenon-hypothesis (LR)

Stimuli that describe a state of affairs (phenomenon), then offer a conclusion as to what has caused that state of affairs (hypothesis). A sub-type of causal reasoning.

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

14%

159

153

18%

159

65%

165

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