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
6.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████
Question Type
Main point
In a Phenomenon-Hypothesis passage, the main point should capture the author’s opinion about the hypothesis presented. Here, the passage focuses on the hypothesis that volcanic eruptions can cause the Earth’s climate to become significantly cooler. The author presents evidence that this effect is not as large as previously thought (P3), but also notes that there’s evidence that volcanic eruptions might cause larger changes to regional temperature (P4).
a
The effect of ████████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███
This doesn’t capture the point that volcanic eruptions don’t have as significant an effect on global temperature as previously thought.
b
The effect of ████████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████████████
This doesn’t capture the point that volcanic eruptions don’t have as significant an effect on global temperature as previously thought. In addition, the author supports the opposite point — effects on regional temperature can be larger than effects on global temperature.
c
The effect of ████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████████ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ █████████
This is the opposite of the author’s point. Effect on global temperature is smaller than previously thought.
This is too narrow and unsupported. Although the author does indicate that cyclic weather phenomena can mask or amplify the apparent effects of a volcanic eruption, this is just one minor point that is part of the broader point that volcanic eruptions don’t have as much impact on global temperature as previously thought. In addition, previous estimates did not “exaggerate the effect” of El Nino; they may not have taken the effect of El Nino into account, but this isn’t the same as exaggerating the effect of El Nino.
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%130
140
75%149
Analysis
Main point
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Science
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
1%
157
b
1%
160
c
1%
160
d
94%
167
e
3%
160
Question history
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