#3 - Global Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below! Thank you!

[bac435@nyu.edu]

Hi,

Please can you explain why A is correct and why the other answers are incorrect?

Thank you!

[Adam Tyson]

Happy to help, bac435! Answer A, "the way in which sulfates in the earth’s atmosphere produce an effect on temperatures", is mentioned in the passage at lines 26-30, where the passage states:

Sulfates from natural sources such as volcanoes as well as from human technological sources tend to counteract the heating effect of greenhouse gases by reflecting solar energy back into space.

This tells us the way that sulfates produce an effect on temperature - they reflect solar energy back into space, lowering temps ("counteract[ing] the heating effect").

None of the others are mentioned in the passage, and since the question asked which of the five answers was mentioned, the four that were not mentioned are crossed out as losers.

Did you have another contender under consideration, something that you believed was mentioned? If so, you would need to be able to identify the line numbers where you found it. That's the real test for the answers to a question like this - can you put your finger on it, literally? Not just something alluded to, or that we as the readers might assume, but actually mentioned explicitly in the text.

[bac435@nyu.edu]

Thanks Adam! I was tempted by the "example of a technological source" answer E, but I realize now that no example of a human technology was given, it was just referenced in general.

[ddddd8888899999]

I was able to choose A but only after great hesitancy with C. I still can't see what makes C clearly wrong.

For evidence, I'm looking at the third paragraph, "models do show a strong decade-by-decade correspondance between solar activity and atmospheric temperature fluctuations."

could you please explain what I am missing ! I'm sure it is something obvious, but I just cant seem to get it...

[Robert Carroll]

ddddd8888899999,

What is the duration of a cycle? The part you quoted doesn't say, and I don't see anywhere else it is. If answer choice (C) were correct, it would be possible to answer that question - how long is a typical cycle?

Robert Carroll

[g_lawyered]

Hi P.S.,
I had the same line of reasoning for choosing answer choice E that BAC had in an earlier post. I found evidence to support in at the end of paragraph 2:

I was tempted by the "example of a technological source" answer E

.

Can someone please answer what makes E incorrect?

[Adam Tyson]

Neither paragraph 2 nor any other part of the passage gives an example of a technological source of airborne sulfates, GGIBA003@FIU.EDU. An example would be a specific, named thing - a particular technological source, like saying "coal-fired power plants produce airborne sulfates" or "rockets launched from Cape Canaveral release airborne sulfates." Examples will name names and be specific. All we have in this passage is a general discussion with no supporting examples.

[miriamson07]

I was able to choose A but only after great hesitancy with C. I still can't see what makes C clearly wrong.

For evidence, I'm looking at the third paragraph, "models do show a strong decade-by-decade correspondance between solar activity and atmospheric temperature fluctuations."

could you please explain what I am missing ! I'm sure it is something obvious, but I just cant seem to get it...

I also am somewhat tempted by answer choice C because of the sentence "models do show a strong decade-by-decade correspondance between solar activity and atmospheric temperature fluctuations." I interpret this to mean that one cycle of correspondance between solar activity and atmospheric temperatures is one decade. I am also tempted to assume that this means that one cycle of solar energy output is one decade. Is my reasoning incorrect because of my assumption, or because of my interpretation? Thank you.

[Amber Thomas]

Hi Miriam!

Let's look at lines 39-44 in the passage: "From observations of cycles in several types of solar phenomena, these scientists have developed models that chart variations in the sun’s heating effects, and the models do show a strong decade-by-decade correspondence between solar activity and atmospheric temperature fluctuations."

This doesn't actually tell us the length of the cycle of varying solar energy outputs, it just states that a) there are cycles for several types of solar phenomena; b) that we can chart variations in the sun's heating effects, and; c) that decade-by-decade, there is a correspondence between solar activity and fluctuations in atmospheric temperature. "Decade-by-decade" just references the duration/time period with which we track this correspondence (i.e. on a ten year basis), not the length of the cycles of solar phenomena and their respective energy outputs.

I hope this helps!