PrepTest 108, Section 1, Question 24
What it means to "explain" something in science(447 more words not shown)
According to the passage, mathematics(7 more words not shown)
- Aconveys meaning in(6 more words not shown)
- Bconstitutes a systematic(3 more words not shown)
- Ccorresponds exactly to(4 more words not shown)
- Dconfers explanatory power(3 more words not shown)
- Erelies on previously(2 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Why call mathematics a language? The opening supplies a direct reason: it is “a systematic contrivance of signs.” We don't need to solve the philosophical debate to recognize a paraphrase of that description.
Working the answers
- A
Metaphors appear later, when the writer explains how mathematical statements can become accepted explanations. That isn't the opening reason for classifying mathematics as a language.
- BCorrect
A “systematic collection of signs” restates “a systematic contrivance of signs.” This is the stated connection.
- C
Exact correspondence to physical phenomena is questioned later, not established as what makes mathematics a language.
- D
Helping explain scientific phenomena describes what mathematics can do. It doesn't give the stated basis for calling it a language.
- E
Agreed conventions are part of one side of the later linguistic debate. The opening classification rests on mathematics being a system of signs; it doesn't require us first to accept that later theory.
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