PT113.S1.P2.Q9 > Analytics

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Spurred by the discovery that a substance containing uranium emitted radiation, Marie Curie began studying radioactivity in 1897. ███ █████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ █████████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ████████████ █ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ███████████ ████████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ █ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███████ █████████ ██ █ ██████████ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████ ██ █████ ████████ █████ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ █ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ ████████████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██ ████████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ███████ █████████ ███ ████████████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ █ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ██████████

Intro topic · Marie Curie's discoveries related to radiation

Discovered polonium and radium. Also disocvered that uranium emitted radiation at a constant rate. But, she couldn't explain what causes raidation.

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Critics and response · Some fault Curie for not discovering cause of radiation and decreasing rate; author says it wasn't her fault

Curie didn't have the evidence that we have today.

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Support for author's response · Various radioactive isotopes weren't available to Curie or decayed to slowly to learn anything about rate

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Additional support · Nature of atom was being debated during Curie's time

Physicists (like Curie) believed that matter couldn't be divided indefinitely. In other words, there's nothing smalling than the atom.

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Continuing prior support · Curie couldn't have realized that atoms lose mass

Praise for Curie · Curie's research helped later breakthroughs

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Spotlight

The passage suggests that the ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████████████

The critics fail ██ ████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████

Not supported, because the author never suggests that Curie had any trouble “dealing with the scientific community.” The problems that prevented her from understanding the true nature of radiation related to the existing understanding of the atom and to the kinds of material that exhibit radiation. But the author doesn’t suggest that she faced any difficulties dealing with other scientists.

16%

The critics do ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████

Not supported, because there’s no evidence quantum mechanics depended in any way on Curie. Quantum mechanics is mentioned as something that helped overthrow previous conceptions of the atom. But we’re never told Curie’s research contributed to the development of quantum mechanics.

11%

The critics are ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████

Not supported, because the author never suggests the critics are not aware of physicists/chemists’ differing conceptions of the atom. They might be aware of this — the author’s point would be that they don’t give these differing conceptions enough weight in their assessment of Curie’s research and how much she should be blamed for failing to discover the true nature of radiation.

The critics fail ██ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ████████

Supported, because the author’s defense of Curie is based on the claim that she couldn’t have understood the true mechanism of radiation given the evidence that was available to her. In other words, the historical context in which Curie worked can excuse the fact she didn’t discover the truth about radiation. In the author’s view, because the nature of the atom was still being debated in her time, Curie’s failure to understand that radiation occurs because atoms themselves lose mass is excusable.

67%

The critics do ███ ██████████ ███ █████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ███ ███████

Not supported, because the author never points to the critics’ inability to understand Curie’s reasoning as part of his defense of Curie. His defense of Curie is based on the evidence available to her at the time, not on the complexity of her reasoning.

PrepTest 113 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 9

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