PrepTest 113, Section 1, Question 8
Spurred by the discovery that a substance containing(462 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AIt is unlikely(22 more words not shown)
- BAlthough later shown(23 more words not shown)
- CThough the scientific(21 more words not shown)
- DThe commitment of(23 more words not shown)
- EAlthough today's theories(24 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We've already predicted a defense of Curie: she didn't fully understand radiation, but her limitations made sense given the evidence and scientific ideas of her time. Her work still helped science move forward. We want that overall assessment, not an answer pretending she got everything right.
Working the answers
- A
Her investigation helped pave the way for later breakthroughs in understanding radiation. That doesn't establish that quantum mechanics itself probably wouldn't have developed without her. A turns her contribution into a broader claim of necessity.
- BCorrect
Incomplete and partly inaccurate, but still an important advance—that is the balance we predicted. The final sentence credits her investigations with paving the way for later breakthroughs; the preceding discussion explains why her inability to reach those later conclusions was understandable.
- C
This takes the critics' side. The author acknowledges her failure to identify the mechanism but defends her against treating that failure as a mark against her career.
- D
The indivisible-atom model limited what she could conceive of, but it didn't prevent fruitful research. She isolated new elements and contributed to later progress. The author uses that model to explain her limitations, not to dismiss her achievements.
- E
Curie's research isn't said to refute the chemists' model. Quantum mechanics later changes the understanding of atoms. The central point is the value of her contribution despite its limits, not a victory over the chemists.
More Main Point questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Main Point questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.