#9 - Phoebe: There have been many reported sightings of strange

[ikim10]

I managed to narrow down my choices to (A) and (C), but am confused as to why (C) is correct. Phoebe claims that the lights were likely earthquake lights, caused by stresses in the ground.

earthquake stresses in the ground earthquake lights

But Quincy said that it could be a coincidence, which is why I chose (A).

[Jeff Wren]

Hi ikim,

First, let's just be clear that the question is asking how does Quincy respond to Phoebe.

Answer A states "takes a correlation to be a causal relationship." This answer actually describes what Phoebe does rather than what Quincy does. Phoebe states that a number of these sightings occurred near (in time and location) earthquakes and then concludes that stresses in the ground (from the earthquakes) caused the ball lightning, which is what people saw.

By stating that he believes it was just a coincidence, Quincy is rejecting the causal explanation (so basically the opposite of Answer A). Quincy then claims that the theory that ground stresses from earthquakes could cause lightning is very speculative. This is best captured in Answer C, "criticizes Phoebe's explanation as unsubstantial" since Phoebe's explanation relies on the theory that ground stresses from earthquakes could cause lightning, which Quincy finds questionable.