PrepTest 149, Section 2, Question 6
In a typical Hollywood action movie, the hero(451 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AAlthough the universe(25 more words not shown)
- BAlthough the multiverse(28 more words not shown)
- CWhen scientists have(23 more words not shown)
- DThe improbability of(21 more words not shown)
- EThe story of(26 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We've already predicted the central finding: there may be more arrangements of physical laws that permit life than the usual investigations suggest. The author gets there by questioning the one-constant-at-a-time method and describing what happens when several constants change together.
What we’re looking for
If your prediction emphasized that fine-tuning is weaker evidence for the multiverse, keep that connection. The wider range of possible laws is the reason that argument becomes weaker. A main-point answer can state the central finding without spelling out every consequence of it.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This captures the contrast between apparent fine-tuning and more life-compatible arrangements than commonly thought. The researchers' numerous hypothetical scenarios provide the support. It does not mention the multiverse, but that omission does not make it incomplete: the finding about alternative laws drives the later discussion of what we should conclude about the multiverse.
- B
The concept's potential usefulness for other puzzles appears in the final paragraph. Its job is to explain why the research need not make us reject the multiverse, not to state the central finding. Also, some cosmologists using fine-tuning as evidence does not establish that explaining fine-tuning was the original reason the hypothesis was developed.
- C
The researchers did find alternatives by changing multiple constants. This replaces their reported success with failure.
- D
This gives the argument the author is questioning. If other sets of laws could also permit life, our own laws may not be so extraordinarily unlikely. Simply restating fine-tuning as support for the multiverse misses that challenge.
- E
The opening does compare the universe with an action movie. That introduces the apparent run of lucky circumstances; it does not include the research that questions how exceptional those circumstances really are. The introduction is not the whole point.
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