Self-study
Radioactive elements may have been created when the universe began. ████████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ █████ ████████ ███ ███████ █████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ███████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ █ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ██████ ██████████████ █████████ ███ ██ ██ ███ ███████████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████ █████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that radioactive elements are still being created in the universe. This conclusion is based on the contrapositive of a conditional statement offered as support. If no new radioactive elements had been created after the universe began, then there would be almost no radioactive elements left in the universe today. But we know there’s a large amount of such elements today.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is the author’s assertion that radioactive elements are still being created today: “[T]hese elements are clearly still being created in the universe today.”
10.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Any radioactive elements ███████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ████ ████████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██████████████ █████████
This is an inference we can draw from the third sentence. Based on this, the author believes that if no radioactive elements had been created after the universe began, we wouldn’t find many radioactive elements today. This conditional is used to support the author’s conclusion.
b
Radioactive elements are █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
This is a paraphrase of the author’s conclusion.
c
If no new ███████████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
This is a subsidiary conclusion based on the premise that most radioactive elements decay within a few million years. The author uses this conditional to conclude that radioactive elements were created after the universe began.
d
It is possible ████ ███████████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████
This is context. The author’s argument concerns whether there were radioactive elements created after the universe began.
e
Due to their ████████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ████████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ █ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ██████ ██████████████ █████████
This is a premise.