Logical Reasoning

PT102 · S4 · Q15 The southern half of a certain

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The southern half of a certain region of the earth was covered entirely by water during the Cretaceous period, the last 75 million years of the Mesozoic era, the era when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Statements

conditionals

Cretaceous → southern half of certain region period covered entirely by water

Dinosaur → lived on land

Dinosaur → didn't live through entire M era

facts

The C Period was the last 75 million years of the M era, when dinosaurs were alive. Plesiosaurs were not dinosaurs; they were swimming reptiles that lived exclusively during C Period.

Evaluate

Correct answers on Must Be False either contradict a conditional that was provided or contradict a Must Be True inference we can make from the info provided.

The conditionals don't seem to chain together, but we can apply them to some of the facts we got.

Plesio's lived exclusively during the C period, so we know that for the whole time Plesio's lived, the southern half of a certain region of earth was covered by water. We know that dinosaurs also lived during this time, but they lived only on land.

So .... Plesio's and Dino's couldn't have hung out much. Plesio's were swimming; they may have been in the underwater part of earth. Dinos were strictly on land.

How can we use the final sentence, that no Dino lived through the whole M era? I guess we could say that for the whole time dinos were alive, the southern half was covered by water.

Goal

There are too many possible inferences here to home in on one likely contender, so we'll have to be flexible.

We're not looking to pick an answer that represents a bad inference. We don't want Can't Prove That. We're looking to pick an answer we can actively contradict. We want Can Disprove That.

15.

If the statements in the passage are true, each of the following could be true EXCEPT:

  1. Dinosaurs inhabited the northern half

    Possible

    Dinos couldn't have been in the waterlogged southern half, but the north would be fine. It might have had some dry land where dinos could live.

    7% picked this

  2. Plesiosaurs did not inhabit the

    Possible

    We know that Plesio's could have potentially inhabited the southern half, since it was covered by water and since they were swimmers. But it's also possible they lived elsewhere. We can't contradict that idea.

    9% picked this

  3. Plesiosaurs did not inhabit the

    Must Be True

    We were actually told that Plesio's lived during the Cretaceous Period only! So prior to the Cretaceous Period (and afterwards), there were no plesiosaurs anywhere.

    6% picked this

  4. Dinosaurs did not inhabit the

    Possible

    We don't have any idea if dinosaurs ever lived anywhere in this "certain region of the earth", so it's very possible they didn't inhabit the norther half of the region.

    8% picked this

  5. Correct

    Dinosaurs inhabited the southern half

    Why this is right

    Yes, this is contradicted by the fact that during one part of the Mesozoic era, the Cretaceous Period, the southern half of the region was covered by water. Dinosaurs only lived on land. Thus dinosaurs could not have lived in the southern half of the region during the Cretaceous Period. Thus dinosaurs could not have lived in the southern half of the region throughout the entire Mesozoic era.

    Skill tested: Must be False · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    70% picked this

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