Self-study
For years scientists have been scanning the skies in the hope of finding life on other planets. ███ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████████████ ██████████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ █████ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████████████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████████████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████ █ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ████ █████ ██████ █████████
Summarize Argument
Scientists will never find alien life because, despite effort and funding, they haven’t found any evidence thus far. The author offers additional support by stating that there’s no reason to believe scientists will find evidence in the future.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is the author’s prediction for discovering aliens: “The dream of finding extraterrestrial life is destined to remain a dream.”
12.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████████
a
There is no ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████
The author never makes this claim. The argument is not concerned with whether or not there is a reason to believe that alien life exists, just whether humanity will ever find it.
b
The equipment that ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██ █████████████ ██ ██ ██████ ███
The author never speculates about why scientists won’t find alien life, nor does the argument suggest that scientists need better equipment.
c
Scientists searching for ████████████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███
This accurately paraphrases the conclusion: “The dream of finding aliens is destined to remain a dream,” i.e. no matter how hard scientists try, they will never find extraterrestrial life.
d
Only if scientists ███ ███████ █████ ████████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███████ █████ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████████
The author doesn’t weigh in on the issue of justification one way or the other. Nothing in the argument offers conditions that would lead to the search being justified or unjustified.
e
We should not █████ █████ ██ █████████████ █████████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ████████████████ █████
The author never makes a recommendation about how money should be spent. Although the author tells us a ballpark price of some equipment, no opinion is offered about whether we should be spending that money.