PrepTest 144, Section 1, Question 26
Passage A Karl Popper's main contribution to the(496 more words not shown)
Passage A(258 more words not shown)
Passage B(246 more words not shown)
It can be inferred that(23 more words not shown)
- APopper's main contribution(11 more words not shown)
- BPositive evidence plays(6 more words not shown)
- CAuxiliary premises are(11 more words not shown)
- DThere is a(7 more words not shown)
- EScientific research involves(8 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
B ends by saying that Einstein's successful prediction increased scientists' confidence in his theory. That is positive evidence doing useful work: a theory successfully predicts what astronomers observe.
What we’re looking for
So B gives us a direct reason to reject the claim that positive evidence has no value. Notice whose claim that was in A: Popper's. A's author criticizes the extreme position rather than endorsing it.
Working the answers
- A
B does not assess Popper's contribution to philosophy. Its astronomy examples give us no basis for rejecting this claim about his intellectual contribution.
- BCorrect
Increased confidence in Einstein's theory follows from the successful Mercury prediction. That is a role for positive evidence in supporting a theory. It need not establish absolute proof to contradict the claim that positive evidence plays no supporting role at all.
- C
B repeatedly uses auxiliary assumptions alongside a theory to derive predictions. This is an idea it illustrates, not one it gives us reason to reject.
- D
B can accept that proving a universal claim differs logically from disproving it while still treating positive evidence as useful. Its examples do not require denying the asymmetry itself. The unsupported leap is from asymmetry to worthlessness.
- E
B describes scientists generating explanations and checking predictions against observations. That activity does not give us a reason to think its author would reject the role of proposing and testing theories.
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