#27 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Subject Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice.

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[kar]

I have a question about question 27 from the last passage.

I put D, but the answer was E.

Upon review, I'm still very unclear about where the information to answer the question should have been coming from.

Could you explain why the answer was E (and hopefully in doing so point out where I should have gotten the answer from)?

[jeff.wren]

Hi Kar,

Lines 29-40 are the most relevant to answering q. 27. To paraphrase, the supporters of the cooling hypothesis argue that the temperature difference between the unusually cool middle/high latitudes with the warm tropical latitudes is causing the southward expansion of the circumpolar vortex, which in turn is displacing the northward-moving monsoon. One of the key words used is here is "unusually." The cool temperatures in the middle/high latitudes are not normal.

Q. 27 is basically asking what would the cooling hypothesis supporters argue happened if the monsoon returned. Since the expansion of the circumpolar vortex was what displaced the monsoon according to the cooling hypothesis, they would argue that the circumpolar vortex was back to normal rather than expanding southward. This is what answer (e) basically states, except that it uses the term "high-altitude westerly winds," which is the definition of circumpolar vortex (given in lines 33-34).

Hope this helps.

Best,
Jeff

[smaani]

I had trouble with this question because I read it as asking us to help the proponents defend the cooling hypothesis if the monsoon rains returned (as if it were a Resolve the Paradox question or a response to the monsoon rains as a weakening premise against the hypothesis), not just for the proponents to describe what happened. Reading it this way, none of the answers seemed to work. Would you agree this is the wrong reading and approach?

[Robert Carroll]

smaani,

This is a Must Be True question. We're looking for something that a proponent of the cooling hypothesis would say. So we're just inferring from their perspective. Because they think that cooling in the Northern Hemisphere has a chain of effects (lines 27-40) that ultimately prevent monsoon rains from reaching a certain part of Africa, if that part of Africa IS getting the rain, like question #27 posits, then those proponents would claim that the causal factors in lines 27-40 are not happening. One factor in that chain of causes and effects is an expansion of the range of high-altitude westerly winds (line 34). If the monsoon returns, then, those people would predict that the winds have returned to normal (if they weren't normal, the monsoon-disrupting effects would still be present).

Robert Carroll