Critical Reasoning

Scientist: All other things being equal, the intensity of heat increases as the distance from the heat source decreases. Knowing this, most people conclude that the Earth's seasons are caused by the Earth's changing distance from the sun. In other words, winter occurs when the Earth is far from the sun, and summer occurs when the earth is close to the sun. However, we know that as North America experiences summer, South America experiences winter, even though the difference in the continents' distance to the sun is negligible. Therefore, the earth's changing distance from the sun does not cause the seasons.

In the argument, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?


A)The first describes a belief to which the scientist subscribes; the second is evidence in support of this belief.

B)The first describes a common belief that the scientist later deems to be ill conceived; the second is evidence against this belief.

C)The first is a statement presented in support of the scientist's final conclusion; the second is the scientist's conclusion.

D)The first describes a commonly held belief that is contrary to the scientist's final conclusion; the second is evidence in support of this belief.

E)The first describes a common belief that follows logically from the statement before it; the second is factual information that the scientist deems to be irrelevant to her argument.


OA B

I got this one right , but I need a reason to eliminate option E

Experts please advise.

j_shreyans wrote:I got this one right , but I need a reason to eliminate option E

E)The first describes a common belief that follows logically from the statement before it; the second is factual information that the scientist deems to be irrelevant to her argument.

Sometimes when doing a boldfaced question one can eliminate an answer choice because it matches neither of the boldfaced portions. Other times, one of the boldfaced portions is matched.

In this case, the first boldfaced portion is well matched by the answer choice as what is described in the first boldfaced portion is a common belief, one held by "most people", that follows from the what is said in the statement that comes before the boldfaced portion.

The second boldfaced portion is not, however, well matched by what is said in the answer choice. The answer choice says that the scientist deems the information in the second boldfaced portion to be irrelevant to her argument. Looking at the argument, however, we see that her conclusion, "the earth's changing distance from the sun does not cause the seasons", is based on the second boldfaced portion. She clearly says, "we know..." and then "therefore..." So she is saying that because of what we know, we can conclude something.

So rather than indicating that she deems the second boldfaced portion to be irrelevant to her argument, as answer choice E says, she indicated that she deems the second boldfaced portion sufficient to prove her conclusion.

j_shreyans wrote:Scientist: All other things being equal, the intensity of heat increases as the distance from the heat source decreases. Knowing this, most people conclude that the Earth's seasons are caused by the Earth's changing distance from the sun. In other words, winter occurs when the Earth is far from the sun, and summer occurs when the earth is close to the sun. However, we know that as North America experiences summer, South America experiences winter, even though the difference in the continents' distance to the sun is negligible. Therefore, the earth's changing distance from the sun does not cause the seasons.

In the argument, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?


A)The first describes a belief to which the scientist subscribes; the second is evidence in support of this belief.

B)The first describes a common belief that the scientist later deems to be ill conceived; the second is evidence against this belief.

C)The first is a statement presented in support of the scientist's final conclusion; the second is the scientist's conclusion.

D)The first describes a commonly held belief that is contrary to the scientist's final conclusion; the second is evidence in support of this belief.

E)The first describes a common belief that follows logically from the statement before it; the second is factual information that the scientist deems to be irrelevant to her argument.


OA B

I got this one right , but I need a reason to eliminate option E

Experts please advise.

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Hi

A)The first describes a belief to which the scientist subscribes; the second is evidence in support of this belief. The scientist doesn't subscribe to the first belief. So eliminate A.

B)The first describes a common belief that the scientist later deems to be ill conceived; the second is evidence against this belief. The first DOES describe a common belief among st most people. The second is an evidence against this belief and is an evidence in support of scientist's conclusion.

C)The first is a statement presented in support of the scientist's final conclusion; the second is the scientist's conclusion. The first is NOT a statement presented in FAVOR of the conclusion. so eliminate C.

D)The first describes a commonly held belief that is contrary to the scientist's final conclusion; the second is evidence in support of this belief. "...evidence in support of THIS belief" 'THIS' refers to the first statement. Not true. So eliminate D.

E)The first describes a common belief that follows logically from the statement before it; the second is factual information that the scientist deems to be irrelevant to her argument. The first DOES describe a common belief that follows from the 1st sentence of the passage (true ) The second statement IS a very RELEVANT information for the scientist. IF he/she deems this statement to be IRRELEVANT then the conclusion fails. So eliminate E.

Answer: B
Hope this helps!
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Hi Brent,
Thanks for ur explanation.I am pathetically bad at boldface qus.Can u pl help me out how to approach these type of qus.Though i got this correct but not very sure about it.

Thanks