Self-study
The conventional view is that asteroids strike the earth at random locations, thereby randomly affecting various aspects of the earth's evolution. ███ ████████████ ████████████ ██████ ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████ █ ██████ █████████ ███████ ████████ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ████ █ █████████ █████ ██████ ███ ████████ ███████████ █████ ██ █ █████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ █████ █████
Summarize Argument
The geophysicist concludes that asteroids strike the earth in a highly organized way, not randomly. She supports this by pointing to a unique pattern of impact craters that form a halo across the Northern Hemisphere.
Notable Assumptions
The geophysicist assumes that the unique pattern of impact craters could not have been caused by asteroids striking earth at random locations and are instead evidence of a highly organized natural process.
17.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██████████████ ██████
a
Several asteroid strikes ██████ █ █████ ██████ █████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ████ ██████ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ █████ ████ ████████████
Irrelevant. The fact that asteroid strikes could cause mass extinctions tell us nothing about whether those strikes are random or follow a highly organized natural process.
b
If asteroids repeatedly ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████ █████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████████
Irrelevant. The fact that asteroid strikes could affect continental drift tells us nothing about whether those strikes are random or follow a highly organized natural process.
c
The impact craters ████ ████ █ █████████ █████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████
Irrelevant. This fails to address whether the single cluster of meteors struck randomly or followed a highly organized natural process.
d
Lumpy masses within ███ █████ █████ █████████████ ████████████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██████ ███████
This suggests that asteroids do strike earth through a highly organized natural process. If lumpy masses in the earth force asteroids into specific orbits, this determines where they will strike, which suggests that they do not strike at random locations.
Causal mechanism
Causal mechanism
Answers that help establish how an alleged cause could produce the alleged effect.
e
No similar pattern ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████
Irrelevant. The fact that this pattern of impact craters is unique tells us nothing about whether it occurred randomly or as the result of a highly organized natural process.