After an oil spill, rehabilitation centers were set up

Answer choices

1. A

   No Impact4% picked this

   Do sea otters of species other than those represented among the otters counted exist in areas that were not

   Let's say that at the rehab center, we were counting Species X sea otters. This is asking, "Are there other types of sea otters, of Species Y and Z, that live somewhere far away from the oil spill?" Who cares? What would they have to do with analyzing the sea otters who were harmed / killed / rehabilitated from the oil spill?

   4%
2. B

   Correct76% picked this

   How is it possible to estimate, of the sea otters that died, how many

   Why this is right

   This challenges the evidence in the final sentence. If you were rummaging through your dead Grandma's estate and found ten letters written during WWII, would you be able to say, "This is only 1/5 of the letters she wrote"? Of course not. Not unless you had prior knowledge of how many total letters she wrote during WWII. If you don't know the total, then you can't put a percentage to the number of letters you've found. Similarly, how would scientists know the total number of otters that died? Did they know the initial size of the local otter population? Did they test all the otters they could and then assume that the ones they didn't see were all dead?

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

   76%
3. C

   Not Related To Evience15% picked this

   Did the process of capturing sea otters unavoidably involve trapping and releasing some otters that were not

   This might help one argue that the rehab effort was not worthwhile (i.e. "Not only did we not save a ton of otters, but we also trapped and released a bunch of otters that weren't affected"), but it has nothing to do with the question task of challenging the evidence.

   15%
4. D

   Not Related To Evidence2% picked this

   Were other species of wildlife besides sea otters negatively affected by

   These rehab centers were "set up to save sea otters", so whether or not other marine life was affected by the oil spill is immaterial to assessing these rehab centers. If there were other species negatively affected, how would that challenge either of the evidentiary claims presented about sea otters?

   2%
5. E

   Not Related To Evidence3% picked this

   What was the eventual cost, per otter rehabilitated, of the

   In terms of assessing the Conclusion, of whether these efforts for "worthwhile", we could probably consider cost a relevant factor. How many otters did we save and what cost? However, the cost per otter wouldn't represent a challenge to either of the pieces of evidence offered.

   3%