PrepTest 149, Section 2, Question 9
In a typical Hollywood action movie, the hero(451 more words not shown)
The author would be most(25 more words not shown)
- AIt focuses on(11 more words not shown)
- BIt is too(5 more words not shown)
- CIt has been(6 more words not shown)
- DIts methodology results(7 more words not shown)
- EIt will eventually(10 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The complaint is not just that scientists failed to find something. It is that their method leaves combinations unexplored. They change one constant while keeping every other constant at its original value.
What we’re looking for
Make that concrete with two imaginary settings, A and B. Start with both at 1. Trying A at 2 while B stays at 1 tests one arrangement; trying B at 2 while A stays at 1 tests another. Neither trial tests A and B both at 2. These are made-up settings, not physical measurements. They show why unsuccessful single changes do not rule out a successful combination of changes.
Working the answers
- A
Looking for laws that could permit life is directly relevant to the issue. The author shares that goal. The criticism concerns how the search is conducted, not what it is trying to discover.
- B
This points in the wrong direction. The method is too restrictive, not too unfocused. It fixes conditions that the author thinks should also be allowed to vary.
- C
A calculation can be mathematically careful and still examine too few arrangements. There is no accusation of inaccurate arithmetic or a lack of rigor.
- DCorrect
The one-constant rule restricts the outcomes the scientists can investigate. Changing several constants together opened up scenarios that the conventional approach would miss, including ones compatible with complex structures and perhaps life. That is why the restriction matters.
- E
We have no prediction that the conventional method will eventually succeed. The author's successful examples come from changing multiple constants—a different method. We cannot transfer the result from that broader search to the restricted approach named in the question.
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