Q7

[tw4jp]

Hi Patrick! I chose answer D, I thought the scientists were doing multiple control group experiments. Since "they tweak some while leaving all other constants unaltered" line 35. I didn't see the " theoretical chain of events" as B stated.

[ohthatpatrick]

My prephrase here would have been something like, “watch to see how the simulation goes, to see the eventual results of the variable they changed”.

Trap answers here will play off common sense definitions of “play the movie”
(A) “fictional”
(C) “dramatic”
(E) “play .. role … story”

The whole point of them changing a variable was to see if it would still be possible for life to have emerged.

(B) reinforces that idea. It’s a theoretical chain of events, since they are modeling a hypothetical universe, not our actual universe. And they are “following it to its conclusion”, because they are trying to ascertain whether that theoretical universe would have eventually resulted in conditions that facilitate life.

There’s nothing in the text that suggests they have modeled their work on “common archetypes”. It is true that they are taking reality and slightly tweaking it. So they are modeling their hypothetical universes on the common archetype of our actual universe, but there aren’t plural archetypes.

Consider just substituting the answer you’re gonna pick into the text.

(B) They tweak one constant of physics, while leaving all other constants unaltered. Then they follow this theoretical universe to its conclusion … to see what disasters occur.

(D) They tweak one constant of physics, while leaving all other constants unaltered. Then they model their work on common archetypes … to see what disasters occur?


This is one of those questions where the correct answer is less about finding a specific line reference and more about just understanding what the paragraph is describing, in a real-world sense.