PrepTest 146, Section 3, Question 17
Photographs show an area of Europa, a moon(66 more words not shown)
The claim that there is(18 more words not shown)
- AIt is a(11 more words not shown)
- BIt is the(5 more words not shown)
- CIt is used(8 more words not shown)
- DIt is the(10 more words not shown)
- EIt is presented(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Buckled ice could be evidence of water moving underneath it, but I'd still wonder whether something else, such as an impact, could have disturbed the surface. And even a warm sea wouldn't guarantee life. The argument's final claim is more cautious: there is reason to think life may exist there.
What we’re looking for
For the role question, start with that final point and work backward. Why might there be life? Because there is supposedly a warm sea, and scientists consider such a sea important in the early development of life. Why believe there is a warm sea? Because of the photographs of the buckled surface. The warm-sea claim therefore does two jobs. The photographic evidence supports it, and it then helps support the claim about possible life. That is what makes it an intermediate conclusion.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
'Subsidiary conclusion' means a conclusion that helps establish a further conclusion. The author infers a warm sea from the photographic evidence, then uses the warm sea to support the possibility of life. Support goes into this claim and then passes through it to the overall point.
- B
The argument keeps going after the warm-sea claim. It uses that claim to reach the further conclusion that there is reason to believe life may exist on Europa. That further point is the overall conclusion; the warm sea is a step toward it.
- C
No opposing theory is identified and attacked. The argument builds a positive case from photographs to a warm sea to the possibility of life. We shouldn't invent a disputed theory merely because the evidence might also bear on one.
- D
The warm sea isn't the only consideration. The author also tells us scientists think such a sea is a primary factor in life's early development. That provides the connection between the sea and possible life. The photographs supply support for the sea's existence as well.
- E
The photographs play this role: they support the intermediate conclusion that a warm sea exists. The warm-sea claim is itself that intermediate conclusion, and it supports the overall conclusion about possible life. E places the claim one step earlier in the argument than it belongs.
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