Self-paced
Conclusion Tennyson's line of poetry "nature, red in tooth and claw" is misconstrued by many evolutionists as a reference to Darwin's theory of evolution. ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ████████ █████ ███ █ ███████████ ███████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The argument concludes that certain evolutionists are wrong: a certain line of Tennyson’s poetry does not refer to Darwin’s theory of evolution. How do we know? The argument offers two supporting premises for this conclusion.
Firstly, the poem in question was published nine years before Darwin revealed his theory. This implies that Tennyson probably didn’t know about Darwin’s theory when he wrote this poem. Secondly, looking at the poem as a whole, the line actually seems to refer to a creationist theory of biology. This gives us a different explanation for the line of poetry, totally independent of Darwin.
1.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████████
a
The line of ██████████ ██████ ██████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████████
This isn't a claim the argument makes at all. The argument doesn't address whether Tennyson's poetry describes Darwin's theory, just whether it was based on that theory.
b
The dominant biological ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ███████ ███ █ ███████████ ███████
This claim is offered as support for the conclusion. Since it's not supported by any other claims, it isn't the conclusion itself.
c
Tennyson's line of ██████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████
This claim is offered as support for the conclusion. Since it's not supported by any other claims, it isn't the conclusion itself.
d
Darwin's theory of █████████ ███ ███ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ████████
Although we can infer this claim from the stimulus, it's not the point the argument is trying to make. The argument only discusses the (non-Darwinian) dominant biological theory of the time as support for the main conclusion that Darwin's theory didn't inspire Tennyson's poem.
e
Tennyson's line of ██████ ███ ███ █ █████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████████
This claim is supported by the rest of the argument, making it the main conclusion. The argument tells us that Tennyson probably didn't know about Darwin's theory when he wrote the line of poetry, and that there's another theory to which Tennyson was more likely referring. Both premises support this conclusion.