PT132.S3.P2.Q9 > Analytics

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A vigorous debate in astronomy centers on an epoch in planetary history that was first identified by analysis of rock samples obtained in lunar missions. ██████████ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ██ █ ████████ ███████████ ██ ██████ █████████████ ████ ███████ █████ █████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ███████████ ████ ████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ██████ █ ██████████ ████ ████████ ████████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████████ █████

Phenomenon · Late heavy bombardment

4 billion years ago, Moon and Earth were both massively bombarded with projectiles.

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Hypothesis 1 · Large asteroid or comet disintegration

Evidence: size of lunar craters is large, suggests a large asteroid or comet broke apart and bombarded inner solar system with debris.

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Hypothesis 2 · "LHB" is just a part of an even longer period of bombardment

"LHB" is part of a continuous bombardment that lasted billions of years. "LHB" just happened to be last and hence obliterated evidence of earlier impacts.

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Hypothesis 3 · LHB only affected Earth-Moon system

Contra hypothesis 1 which claims that LHB affected entire inner solar system (Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury).

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Evidence Supporting Hypothesis 1 · Mars rock found on Earth

Mars rock dates to same time as LHB, suggesting that Mars experienced bombardment too

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Conclusion · LHB wasn't just an Earth-Moon phenomenon

At least Mars experienced it too.

Further Research · To decide between the different hypotheses

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

The author's attitude toward arguments ████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██

Question Type

Author’s attitude

Implied

This is an Inference question about the author’s attitude toward arguments based on the new evidence of the Mars rock. The author is tentatively supportive of these arguments––the author accepts that the evidence of the rock suggests that the LHB was not limited to the Earth-Moon system, but the author also recognizes the need for many more similar pieces of evidence before making conclusions about the LHB.

ambivalence because the ██████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████

Unsupported. The author never indicates that it is difficult to believe that the rock from Mars reached Earth––the author just says that this is rare.

caution because even ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ████████

This is supported in P3. Here, the author says that even if an argument accepts that the rock is from Mars, more evidence will be needed before conclusions are made about the pervasiveness of the LHB.

81%

skepticism because it █████ ████████ ████ █ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████ █████ █████████

Unsupported. While the author acknowledges that it is rare for Mars rocks to reach Earth, she does not use this rarity to express skepticism about arguments based on this new evidence. Instead, the author goes on to give tentative support for arguments based on the Mars rock (of course, with the caveat that further evidence is needed). This tentative support is not the same thing as skepticism.

curiosity because many ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ████ █████████

Unsupported. We don’t know whether or not these details have been published. The author calls for additional pieces of evidence, not necessarily more information about the one piece of evidence that we already have.

outright acceptance because ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ████████████ ████████████

Unsupported. Outright acceptance is too strong. The author recognizes that the rock acts as a tiny piece of evidence, and emphasizes the need for further evidence.

PrepTest 132 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 9

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