By examining fossilized beetles,

Answer choices

1. A

   Irrelevant Comparison1% picked this

   Beetles can tolerate warm weather better than

   This plan is just about calculating max temperature, so we're only discussing the beetles' heat tolerance. It doesn't matter whether they prefer cold, prefer warm, or like them equally.

   1%
2. B

   Opposite (if anything)5% picked this

   Fossils of different species found in the same place belonged to

   The method is not banking on the idea that if we find different species in the same place, they're from DIFFERENT periods. To the contrary, we are only hearing about how the method works when diff species in the same place are from the SAME period.

   5%
3. C

   Irrelevant Comparison (other organisms)3% picked this

   The process of dating is more accurate for beetles than for

   The argument does not compare the reliability of dating methods between species, so this is not required for the conclusion.

   3%
4. D

   Opposite19% picked this

   The highest actual summer temperature at a place and period equaled the average of the highest temperatures that could have been tolerated by each

   The way the method is described, they are taking the HIGHEST temperature tolerance and using that number, not averaging the different temperature tolerance numbers. In our example before (three species with tolerances of 80, 90, and 100 degrees), they would calculate 100 degrees as the max summer temp, whereas this answer is saying it should be 90 degrees, which is the average. So this answer would mean the method DOESN'T work. It would weaken.

   19%
5. E

   Correct72% picked this

   The temperature tolerances of the beetle species did not change significantly during

   Why this is right

   This has that lovable Defender "not". When we negate this, it says that the temperature tolerances DID change significantly. So when we look at beetle species X, Y, and Z today and see that they tolerate 80 / 90 / 100 degrees respectively, we'd be failing to consider that 22,000 years ago they tolerated 70 / 80 / 90 degrees respectively. So using Z's modern tolerance of 100 degrees to calculate the max summer temperature 22,000 years ago would be giving us the wrong number!

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

   72%