Logical Reasoning

PT155 · S2 · Q6 Saturn’s moon Enceladus has

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Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a rocky core and an icy surface.

Conclusion (must be)

There must be a lake of liquid water between these two layers of Enceladus (the rocky core and the icy surface).

Evidence (and)

The Cassini space probe measured the density of Enceladus: between the rocky core and the icy surface is something denser than ice, and that could only be liquid water.

Evaluate

Whenever we do Main Conclusion (or Role), we prime our brain before we read the paragraph with the reminder that the Conclusion is almost always earlier than the Supporting ideas. In fact, a ton of the time the Conclusion will be the very first claim. We read these listening for the first opinion we hear from the author.

The word must is being used to convey opinion in the second sentence. It's a weird word, because in conditional logic contexts it means factual necessity. But in "Solve the Mystery / Explain the Curious Fact" contexts, must is used to convey that speculative use of must that we use.

Pretend you were hosting a party, you left to go to the bathroom, and when you came back you see that two of your friends (a married couple) left without saying goodbye. Your brain would want to Solve the mystery / Explain the Curious Fact.

You might scratch your temple, confused, and say,

That's the speculative "must" being used in the 2nd sentence of this paragraph. We would hear more naturally as announcing the author's causal hypothesis if it occurred at the end of the paragraph:

We probed Enceladus. We found that there's something in between the ice layer and the rocky layer. It's denser than ice. Liquid water is only plausible thing that could be there that's denser than ice. Thus, there must be a lake between the ice layer and rock layer.

So one thing assisting our ability to find this conclusion is our knowledge that the Conclusion almost always occurs earlier than the Support (on Main Conclusion and Role questions). Another thing helping us is our awareness that must gets used to convey a speculative causal hypothesis (i.e. an opinion from the author).

Finally, if the two claims are joined by the word "and", then they are almost always both Supporting ideas. The "and" is showing us that these ideas work together, they blend to let us derive the Conclusion.

Goal

We just want to replicate the meaning of the 2nd sentence. On Main Conclusion, we make sure to import "borrowed language", if there are any pronouns or implied nouns.

On Enceladus, there is a lake of liquid water between the rocky core layer and the icy surface layer.

6.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the overall conclusion drawn in the argument?

  1. Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a

    Background Fact

    This is the 1st sentence. We're looking for an answer that says the 2nd sentence. The fact that this sentence is presented as fact means that it would not be our author's Main Conclusion, which will be an opinion.

    1% picked this

  2. Correct

    There must be a lake

    Why this is right

    This paraphrases the 2nd sentence.

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

    89% picked this

  3. The Cassini space probe was

    Background Fact

    This is the 3rd claim. We're looking for an answer that says the 2nd sentence. Also, the fact that this claim is presented as fact means that it would not be our author's Main Conclusion, which will be an opinion.

    0% picked this

  4. Density measurements reveal something denser

    Premise

    This is the 4th claim, appearing in the 3rd sentence. We're looking for an answer that says the 2nd sentence. The fact that this sentence is a measurement, thus a fact, means that it would not be our author's Main Conclusion, which will be an opinion.

    1% picked this

  5. Anything denser than ice between

    Premise Last-Claim Trap

    This is the final claim, which will not be where we find the Conclusion on most Main Conclusion questions. The conclusion was the 2nd sentence. This is a premise, which we can surmise because it's prefaced by the word "and", which almost always connects two supporting ideas. We can also tell it's not the conclusion, because no support is offered for it. Why should we believe that anything denser than ice would have to be liquid water? They didn't ever support that idea, so it can't be a conclusion.

    8% picked this

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