PrepTest 156, Section 1, Question 26
Discovered in 1993, the site known as Ukhaa(459 more words not shown)
The author's main purpose in(13 more words not shown)
- Aquestion the wisdom(8 more words not shown)
- Bprovide the basis(16 more words not shown)
- Cexplain the geological(5 more words not shown)
- Dshow how adherence(18 more words not shown)
- Eestablish that scientists(14 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The opening gives us the old explanation so that we can understand what the new evidence changes. First, sandstorms were thought to have buried the animals. Then the geological investigation favors rain-induced sandslides. That contrast organizes the rest of the account.
Working the answers
- A
Revising a hypothesis is not the same as questioning the wisdom of the scientists who proposed it. The author explains what they thought and why new evidence points elsewhere; there is no personal criticism.
- BCorrect
The initial sandstorm account supplies the comparison for the sandslide account developed afterward. Both try to explain the exceptional preservation, but they propose different causes of the rapid burial.
- C
The initial basis is the completeness of the skeletons, not the detailed geology. The geological analysis that follows is used to challenge the sandstorm hypothesis.
- D
We aren't told that belief in sandstorms hindered research. A theory can turn out to be mistaken without having obstructed investigation.
- E
The author calls the geological findings “new evidence.” That doesn't establish that the earlier scientists possessed the evidence and ignored it. Later discoveries can justify a revision without showing that the original researchers neglected what they already knew.
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