Complicating factor ·El Nino can magnify the apparent cooling effect of a volcano
El Nino causes temporary warming, which fades away. If eruption happens during warming, that might hide the actual effect of the volcano. But, if eruption happens while El Nino warming is fading away, that makes effect of eruption seem larger than it is.
Correcting for complicating factor ·Show volcanos don't cause as much cooling as previously thought
After M and P subtracted effect of El Nino, found (1) minor eruptions have no discernible effect on temperature; (2) major eruptions cause smaller drop than expected in hemisphere of the eruption, and an even smaller drop in the other hemisphere.
Climatic feedback loop ·Small temperature drop leads to causal chain of effects that could lead to major cooling in a region
Delayed melting of snow leads to more sunlight reflected, which affect jet stream...at this point I'm not focusing too much on the details. We can come back to this paragraph if we're asked about the climatic feedback loop.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
13.
The primary purpose of the ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██
Question Type
Purpose of paragraph
Structure
Rely on your low-res summaries to help you answer this question. In P2 and P3, the author presents evidence that volcanic eruptions probably didn’t cause unusually cool summers, at least, directly. But in P4, the author presents an argument by some researchers that supports the possibility that volcanic eruptions could have caused unusually cool summers indirectly. Let’s look for an answer related to showing how volcanic eruptions might cause cool summers indirectly through a feedback loop.
a
describe how the █████ ███████ █ ███████ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████
P4 doesn’t involve a contrast between feedback loops and the “year without a summer.” Rather, P4 involves an argument that feedback loops might lead to a “year without a summer.”
1%
b
account for the ██████████ ██████ ███████████ ███████ ██████ ██ █ █████ ████████ ████████
In P4, the author presents a theory about how a small cooling effect might lead to a larger one. This doesn’t help explain (account) why a volcanic eruption produces only a small hemispheric cooling effect.
This is the best answer. It’s not exactly what we predicted, but it’s the only one that relates to how a small drop in temperature can cause a larger drop.
The author doesn’t suggest any changes to the feedback loop model. The author simply presents the feedback loop model.
2%
Difficulty
94% of people who answer get this correct
This is a slightly challenging question.
It is significantly easier than other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%128
139
75%149
Analysis
Purpose of paragraph
Purpose of paragraph
Stems that ask us to describe the purpose of a paragraph within the passage's broader structure, often in abstract language (e.g. "to offer evidence in support of the contention that...").
An umbrella tag marking questions that test our understanding of the passage's overall structure (e.g. Main point, Purpose of paragraph, Meaning in context, Describe organization).
Critique or debate passages contain multiple points of view on a particular subject. Sometimes the author takes sides and participates in the critique or debate, other times the author merely reports the debate.
Passages that focus on describing or evaluating potential explanations for a given phenomenon. Causal reasoning features prominently in these passages.