PrepTest 136, Section 1, Question 23
Advances in scientific understanding often do not build(475 more words not shown)
The author's primary aim in(4 more words not shown)
- Acriticize a traditional(8 more words not shown)
- Billustrate the often(9 more words not shown)
- Cjudge the relative(7 more words not shown)
- Dtake issue with(8 more words not shown)
- Edisplay the way(8 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We've already predicted the main point: the evidence for nuclear fission accumulated before scientists understood it, and Meitner's conceptual connection produced a major step forward. The author uses that history to show why scientific progress doesn't always advance smoothly alongside the data.
What we’re looking for
The primary-aim answer can describe that purpose more broadly than our prediction. It doesn't have to repeat the names or mention nuclear fission if it captures what this example illustrates.
Working the answers
- A
We don't get a traditional theory of scientific progress followed by a proposed replacement. The author explains a pattern through a historical example, rather than advocating a new general model.
- BCorrect
Erratic describes the uneven progress we followed: evidence accumulates, recognition lags, and then a conceptual breakthrough changes scientists' understanding. The history illustrates that broader point from the opening.
- C
Theory and experimentation both matter, but the author doesn't rank their relative importance. The problem is connecting experimental results with their theoretical significance.
- D
The opening contrasts smooth progress with what happened here, so this is tempting. But the main work is illustrating an uneven discovery, not developing an argument against a stated position that scientists progress slowly and steadily. B better captures the role of the historical account.
- E
Expectations interfered with recognition, but intellectual arrogance adds a motive or attitude the author never establishes. Having a mistaken expectation isn't automatically being arrogant.
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