Sam: Mountain lions, a protected species, are preying on bighorn sheep, another protected species. We must let nature take its course and hope the bighorns survive.
Meli: Nonsense. We must do what we can to ensure the survival of the bighorn, even if that means limiting the mountain lion population.
Speaker 1 Summary
Sam doesn’t make an argument, instead just claiming without support that humans should not intervene when one protected species (mountain lions) is preying on another protected species (bighorn sheep).
Speaker 2 Summary
Meli states the opinion that humans should ensure bighorn sheep survive, even if that requires taking action against mountain lions. This also isn’t an argument, because Meli doesn’t offer any support.
Objective
We need to find a point of disagreement between Sam and Meli. The two disagree about whether or not humans should intervene to protect bighorn sheep from mountain lions.
A
Humans should not intervene to protect bighorn sheep from mountain lions.
Sam agrees with this, but Meli disagrees, meaning that this is the point of disagreement. Sam states that humans should “let nature take its course,” meaning not intervene, while Meli says that humans should take action to protect the sheep.
B
The preservation of a species as a whole is more important than the loss of a few individuals.
Neither speaker offers an opinion. Sam and Meli’s discussion is about what role people should take in a specific predator-prey dynamic, not about overall principles of species preservation.
C
The preservation of a predatory species is easier to ensure than the preservation of the species preyed upon.
Neither speaker talks about this. Firstly, neither Sam nor Meli discusses which species is easier to preserve between mountain lions and bighorn sheep. Second, they also never discuss general principles applicable to all species.
D
Any measures to limit the mountain lion population would likely push the species to extinction.
Neither speaker makes this claim. Only Meli talks about potentially taking measures to limit the mountain lion population, but never mentions a risk or likelihood of extinction.
E
If the population of mountain lions is not limited, the bighorn sheep species will not survive.
Neither speaker claims this. Meli is the only speaker who mentions limiting the mountain lion population, but even that is only meant as a potential measure that could be taken, not as a necessary step to saving bighorn sheep.
Parent: Pushing very young children into rigorous study in an effort to make our nation more competitive does more harm than good. Curricula for these young students must address their special developmental needs, and while rigorous work in secondary school makes sense, the same approach in the early years of primary school produces only short-term gains and may cause young children to burn out on schoolwork. Using very young students as pawns in the race to make the nation economically competitive is unfair and may ultimately work against us.
Summary
Rigorous schoolwork in secondary school makes sense.
Making young children do rigorous schoolwork in order to make the country more competitive does more harm than good; it’s unfair and may backfire.
Rigorous schoolwork in primary school only produces short-term gains and can lead to burnout.
Schoolwork for young children must address their developmental needs.
Very Strongly Supported Conclusions
Rigorous schoolwork in primary school does not address young children’s developmental needs.
A
For our nation to be competitive, our secondary school curriculum must include more rigorous study than it now does.
Unsupported. The parent never gives a condition that’s necessary for making the nation competitive. Also, while she says that rigorous schoolwork in secondary school makes sense, she doesn’t imply that it should be more rigorous than it is now.
B
The developmental needs of secondary school students are not now being addressed in our high schools.
Unsupported. The parent says that rigorous schoolwork in secondary school makes sense, but she never mentions whether secondary school students’ developmental needs are being addressed.
C
Our country can be competitive only if the developmental needs of all our students can be met.
Unsupported. The parent never gives a necessary condition for making the nation competitive. She says that schoolwork must address the developmental needs of young children, but doesn’t imply that this will then make the country competitive.
D
A curriculum of rigorous study does not adequately address the developmental needs of primary school students.
Very strongly supported. Schoolwork for young children must address their developmental needs, but rigorous schoolwork does more harm than good, leads to burnout, and only produces short-term gains. So we can infer that it doesn’t address young children’s developmental needs.
E
Unless our nation encourages more rigorous study in the early years of primary school, we cannot be economically competitive.
Unsupported. The parent never gives a necessary condition for making the nation competitive. She says it’s unfair to make young children do rigorous schoolwork in order to make the nation competitive; she never says that this is necessary for making it competitive.
A
Businesses supplying new technologies are more likely to prosper in times of accelerated technological change than other businesses.
B
Businesses that supply new technologies may not always benefit from economic growth.
C
The development of new technologies may accelerate economic growth in general.
D
Businesses that adopt new technologies are most likely to prosper in a period of general economic growth.
E
Economic growth increases business failures.
Energy analyst: During this record-breaking heat wave, air conditioner use has overloaded the region’s electrical power grid, resulting in frequent power blackouts throughout the region. For this reason, residents have been asked to cut back voluntarily on air conditioner use in their homes. But even if this request is heeded, blackouts will probably occur unless the heat wave abates.
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why will cutting back on home air conditioning not be enough to avoid blackouts when air conditioning is the cause of those blackouts?
Objective
A hypothesis resolving this discrepancy will provide a reason for blackouts caused by air conditioning to continue even when residents cut back in their homes. It will introduce new information about the electric grid during the heat wave or identify a source of air conditioning other than people’s homes.
A
Air-conditioning is not the only significant drain on the electrical system in the area.
This does not explain why the heat wave will lead to blackouts. There is no indication the heat wave will make these other drainages any worse.
B
Most air-conditioning in the region is used to cool businesses and factories.
This explains why blackouts will continue. Even if residents cut back in their homes, businesses and factories will use enough air conditioning to cause strain on the electric grid.
C
Most air-conditioning systems could be made more energy efficient by implementing simple design modifications.
This does not state that residents will make such modifications. It suggests a way to reduce the chance of blackouts, but does not state that failure to make those modifications will worsen air conditioning’s effect on the electric grid.
D
Residents of the region are not likely to reduce their air conditioner use voluntarily during particularly hot weather.
This implies residents are unlikely to cut back, but gives no reason blackouts might continue if they do. The author states blackouts will continue even if residents do reduce their usage as asked.
E
The heat wave is expected to abate in the near future.
This implies the situation is unlikely to unfold, without addressing the discrepancy that would occur. It gives no reason for air conditioning to cause blackouts in the event the heat wave continues and residents cut back.
A
A decrease in symptoms of anxiety often occurs even with no treatment or intervention by a mental health professional.
B
Short-term relaxation training conducted by a more experienced practitioner can be more expensive than long-term training conducted by a less experienced practitioner.
C
Recipients of long-term training are much less likely than recipients of short-term training to have recurrences of problematic levels of anxiety.
D
The fact that an individual thinks that a treatment will reduce his or her anxiety tends, in and of itself, to reduce the individual’s anxiety.
E
Short-term relaxation training involves the teaching of a wider variety of anxiety-combating relaxation techniques than does long-term training.
A
The claim that advertising persuades people that they need things that they merely want rests on a fuzzy distinction.
B
Many critics of consumerism insist that advertising attempts to blur people’s ability to distinguish between wants and needs.
C
There is nothing wrong with advertising that tries to persuade people that they need certain consumer goods.
D
Many critics of consumerism fail to realize that certain things are essential to human happiness.
E
Critics of consumerism often use fuzzy distinctions to support their claims.
Because those people can’t distinguish between what’s scientifically valid and scientifically invalid.
To go further, we can anticipate a more specific connection taking the author from the premise to the conclusion. The author thinks that people who cannot discriminate between scientifically valid information and scientifically invalid information are likely to do themselves more harm than good. Or, in other words, in order to avoid being more likely to do more harm than good when relying on the web to diagnose oneself, one must be able to distinguish between scientifically valid and invalid information.
A
People who browse the web for medical information typically do so in an attempt to diagnose their medical conditions.
B
People who attempt to diagnose their medical conditions are likely to do themselves more harm than good unless they rely exclusively on scientifically valid information.
C
People who have sufficient medical knowledge to discriminate between scientifically valid information and quackery will do themselves no harm if they rely on the web when attempting to diagnose their medical conditions.
D
Many people who browse the web assume that information is not scientifically valid unless it is clearly written.
E
People attempting to diagnose their medical conditions will do themselves more harm than good only if they rely on quackery instead of scientifically valid information.
A
Balls thrown at a faster speed, unlike balls thrown at a slower speed, trigger regions in the brain that control the tracking of objects for self-defense.
B
Balls that are tossed more slowly tend to have a higher arc that makes it less likely that the ball will be obscured by the body of the adult tossing it.
C
Adults generally find it easier to catch balls that are thrown slowly than balls that are thrown at a faster speed.
D
Children are able to toss balls back to the adults with more accuracy when they throw fast than when they throw the ball back more slowly.
E
There is a limit to how fast the balls can be tossed to the children before the children start to have more difficulty in catching them.