Self-study
Prediction, the hallmark of the natural sciences, appears to have been made possible by reducing phenomena to mathematical expressions. ████ ██████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████████████ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
Making social phenomena mathematical would be a mistake, despite what some social scientists assume. Why? Doing this would leave out data, making predictions inaccurate.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is a rejection of social scientist assumption: “... this would be a mistake.”
10.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
The social sciences ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████
The author doesn’t address predictive power. She discusses social science prediction compatibility with mathematical formulas.
b
Mathematics plays a ████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████
The author doesn’t compare mathematical importance overall. She only speaks on mathematics as a means of prediction; we don’t know her opinion on other ways that math could factor into these sciences.
c
There is a ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████
We don’t know anything about a need for improvement. We know some social scientists want the power to predict accurately, but that’s all.
d
Phenomena in the ██████ ████████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ████████████ █████████
This accurately paraphrases the conclusion. The author says “this” (reducing phenomena in the social sciences to mathematical expressions) “would be a mistake” (should not happen).
e
Prediction is responsible ███ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████
This is an inaccurate interpretation of context. We’re told that prediction is the hallmark of natural sciences; a trademark isn’t the same as being causal.