PrepTest 106, Section 4, Question 8
Long after the lava has cooled, the effects(450 more words not shown)
The passage indicates that each(13 more words not shown)
- Amaking the cooling(14 more words not shown)
- Bmaking the cooling(14 more words not shown)
- Cincreasing atmospheric temperature(6 more words not shown)
- Dinitiating a feedback(9 more words not shown)
- Econfounding the evidence(4 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
El Niño can distort the picture in either direction. Its warming can hide volcanic cooling, while the end of a warm period can produce a drop mistakenly credited to a volcano. For this EXCEPT question, keep those two effects separate and find the claim we aren't given.
Working the answers
- A
This is supported when the warm period fades. Some of the observed cooling could come from losing El Niño's warmth, making the volcano appear responsible for a larger drop than it actually caused.
- B
This is the masking effect: El Niño warms the atmosphere while the eruption cools it. The resulting temperature change can make the cooling look smaller.
- C
Paragraph 2 says El Niño raises equatorial Pacific surface temperatures, which in turn heats the atmosphere. Both steps appear here.
- DCorrect
No El Niño feedback loop is described. The final paragraph's loops amplify an initial temperature drop through snow cover and changes in the jet stream. D borrows that separate mechanism and assigns it to El Niño masking volcanic cooling.
- E
This captures the overall problem with ignoring El Niño. Because it can hide or imitate volcanic cooling, it complicates the evidence for how much eruptions affect climate.
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