Volcanoes

Answer choices

1. A

   Opposite, if anything11% picked this

   Major volcanic eruptions sometimes cause average temperature in the hemisphere of the eruption to drop by more

   The end of the 3rd paragraph reports that a major eruption is expected to cause "only half a degree or less" of cooling. This answer is saying that a major eruption sometimes causes "more than a whole degree" of cooling.

   11%
2. B

   Unsupported Causal Relationship: induce6% picked this

   Major volcanic eruptions can induce the El Niño phenomenon when it otherwise

   Nothing in the passage ever suggested that volcanoes themselves can trigger an El Niño phenomenon. It's identified as a "cyclic weather phenomenon". It happens every x years, whether there's a volcano or not.

   6%
3. C

   Correct73% picked this

   Major volcanic eruptions do not directly cause unusually

   Why this is right

   This reflects our updated understanding of the volcano cooling effect. The OLD view (1st paragraph) was that volcanoes could have caused the "year without a summer". The NEW view is that volcanoes actually don't have a major cooling effect on global temps (we were overestimating the effect volcanoes had because we were failing to account for the fact that El Niño was skewing the data). The final paragraph explains how a major volcanic eruption could indirectly lead to an unusually cold summer, but the direct cooling of the eruption is a maximum of 0.5º in the hemisphere where it occurred. Suppose we say: A causes B, and then B causes C, and C causes D. A directly causes B. A indirectly causes C and D.

   Skill tested: Author Opinion · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   73%
4. D

   Opposite, if anything Relative vs. Absolute8% picked this

   The climatic effects of minor volcanic eruptions differ from those of major eruptions

   This idea is basically contradicted, although it's somewhat hard to read this answer without hearing two different meanings to the word 'degree'. When we say something like "Jim's infraction differs from Mary's infraction only in degree", we mean something like, "Yes, they both cheated on the quiz by copying other students' answers, but Jim only copied a couple answers whereas Mary copied the entire quiz". It's the same kind of thing, but to a different extent / magnitude. We can't apply that to minor vs. major eruptions. We're told in the 3rd paragraph that, minor eruptions have no discernible effect on temperature vs. major eruptions cause only half a degree or less of temperature drop If minor eruptions caused half a degree of cooling and major eruptions caused 2-3 degrees of cooing, then we could say "Their climatic effects are different only in terms of degree". They both cause cooling, but to a different extent / magnitude. But 0 vs. something is not two different degrees. It's not a Relative issue of degree. It's on/off. It's Absolute.

   8%
5. E

   Opposite, if anything2% picked this

   El Niño has no discernible effect on average

   We're told in the 2nd paragraph that El Niño "warms the sea surface in the equatorial Pacific and thereby warms the atmosphere". Plus, the whole main point of this passage is that we have an updated understanding of how volcanoes affect average hemispheric temperature, because we've filtered out the effect of El Niño.

   2%